WaxWorks
|
Sunday, August 28, 2005
Who Are Ya Gonna Believe -- Me or Your Lying Eyes?
Several weeks ago, Ken Mehlman, Chairman of the Republican National Committee, gave a much-publicized speech in which he apologized, ostensibly on behalf of the Republican party, for its so-called "Southern Strategy." Essentially, as described by the Washington Post, the Republican's Southern Strategy, begun under Nixon in 1968, was "to use race as a wedge issue -- on matters such as desegregation and busing -- to appeal to white southern voters."
Implicit in Mehlman's remarks is the fact that the Republicans have stopped such tactics since 2000:
"By the '70s and into the '80s and '90s, the Democratic Party solidified its
gains in the African American community, and we Republicans did not effectively
reach out," Mehlman says in his prepared text. "Some Republicans gave up on
winning the African American vote, looking the other way or trying to benefit
politically from racial polarization. I am here today as the Republican chairman
to tell you we were wrong."
However, I seem to recall, back in 2002 when Karl Rove's office lost a Powerpoint presentation and the contents of the presentation were all over Washington. The co-author of the presentation? Why, none other than Rove's deputy at the time, the one and only Ken Mehlman.
I was struck by the last slide in the presentation (if you're interested, here' s a link to the whole presentation):
Rep. Charles Rangel (D-Harlem) drew cheers when he hailed Clinton as "the last
elected president of the U.S." and said, "It is our job to say we're not getting
over Florida."
Now, I assume the purpose of this slide was to point out to Republicans that hard-core Democrats weren't getting over Florida so the Republicans would need to work extra hard in 2002 and 2004.
But what I'm struck by is the parenthetical after Rep. Rangel's name. (D-Harlem). Not (D-NY) or just (D), but (D-Harlem).
No Southern Strategy in public, but it seems like quite a bit behind the curtains in private, no?
Comments:
Post a Comment
