Yesterday, I noted that RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman was poised to speak before the NAACP and acknowledge that the Republican Party’s desire to benefit politically from racial polarization was “wrong.” I suggested this was a good start, but the GOP still has a long way to go.
To help prove my point, Rush Limbaugh responded to Mehlman’s mea culpa by denouncing the speech and criticizing any notion that an apology was necessary. From yesterday’s broadcast:
“President Bush skipping this week’s annual NAALCP convention for the fifth straight year, but that’s not preventing the White House and the Republican Party from waging a drive to woo African-American voters. Ken Mehlman of the RNC is going to the NAALCP convention, and he is basically going to tell them how the Republican Party of Abraham Lincoln lost its way with African-American voters over the years and how determined the party is to get them back. He said, ‘We can’t call ourselves a true majority unless we reach out to African-Americans and make it the party of Lincoln. There was a time when African-American support turned Democrat, and we didn’t do enough to retain it. Now we want to build on the gains we made in the last election.'”
“Know what he’s going to do? He’s going to go down there and basically apologize for what has come to be known as the Southern Strategy, popularized in the Nixon administration. He’s going to go down there and apologize for it. In the midst of all of this, in the midst of all that’s going on, once again, Republicans are going to go bend over and grab the ankles. They’re going to the NAALCP. This is like going into Hyannisport and apologizing to [Sen.] Ted Kennedy [D-MA] for whatever and expecting him to become a supporter. It’s like showing up at the [Sen.] Chuck Schumer [D-NY]-Joe Wilson press conference in 20 minutes and saying, ‘Okay, Ambassador Wilson, we apologize. We hope you’ll support us. We can’t become a majority party until people like you are voting for us.’ It is just — it’s absolutely absurd.”
Let’s hope that, in addition to hearing Mehlman’s act of contrition, NAACP members also hear what Limbaugh — a man the president has described as a “good friend” — had to say about Republicans’ alleged regret for the recent past.