Lynching apology opponents: 'We support Black History Month'!

[AirAmFan]

I'm not kidding! That's what they said. See for yourself: The Congressional Record transcript of Monday's Senate session is online at http://thomas.loc.gov/r109/r109.html . (Click the "Senate" button on the "June 13th" line and then go to item #16.)

Right after a strong apology for lynching by Barbara Boxer, here's what Lamar Alexander and John Cornyn said:

"Page: S6387... Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, this past February, I introduced the resolution celebrating Black History Month that follows these remarks. Thirty five other Senators have joined me in this effort....

There are different ways to acknowledge those times when Americans have failed to live up to our lofty goals. The Senators from Louisiana and Virginia, who are also co-sponsors of our Black History Month resolution, have chosen to apologize for the actions of some earlier Senators as a way of expressing their revulsion to lynching. I also condemn lynching, and this Black History Month resolution condemns lynching. But, rather than begin to catalog and apologize for all those times that some Americans have failed to reach our goals, I prefer to look ahead. I prefer to look to correct current injustices rather than to look to the past. ...

Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I wish to associate myself with the articulate and poignant remarks of the junior Senator from Tennessee. He is absolutely right, of course, that the era of widespread lynching in our nation's history is deplorable. And he is right that we must look to the future, to ensure that such crimes are never again allowed to occur.... Indeed, let us learn from the past, and look forward with such courage."

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Earlier (on page S6384), Trent Lott brashly interrupted the apology proceedings with an off-topic plug for a judical nominee from Brigham Young University in Utah!

And Larry Craig (at page S6381) re-entered into the record decades old filibuster speeches against anti-lynching laws by his arch-reactionary predecessor William Borah of Idaho.

This is unbelievable! Reauthorizing the Voting Rights Act in 2007 to fight vote suppression will be no cakewalk, judging by what happened yesterday.

And moving forward on "felon disfranchisement" of up to a third of African-American men in Mississippi, Alabama, Virginia, and other states where brutally racist police/"justice" systems have replaced lynch mobs may have to wait for even MORE decades..

[quaoar]

1. OMG!

And some of their best friends are black, too.

[reality based]

2. Alexander and Cornyn

Why, some of their best friends are . . . .

[Carla in Ca]

5. LOL...

Alexander and Cornyn fail to realize that sometimes you have to take a few tiny steps backwards in order to take big steps forward.

I want to email them...who has a list...thanks!

[AirAmFan]

7. A list of all 100 Senators, with contact info, is at URL

http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm . The latest list of cosponsors of the lynching apology is at http://www.congress.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d109:SE00039:@@@P . The difference, currently (Tuesday 8 pm NY time) 21 Senators, is:

R-AK Murkowski, Lisa
R-AL Shelby, Richard
R-AZ Kyl, Jon

R-IA Grassley, Chuck
R-ID Crapo, Michael
R-MS Cochran, Thad

R-MS Lott, Trent
R-NH Gregg, Judd
R-NH Sununu, John

R-OH Voinovich, George
R-OR Smith, Gordon
R-TN Alexander, Lamar

R-TX Cornyn, John
R-TX Hutchison, Kay
R-UT Bennett, Robert

R-UT Hatch, Orrin
R-WY Enzi, Michael
R-WY Thomas, Craig

D-ND Conrad, Kent
D-NM Bingaman, Jeff
D-RI Reed, Jack

[Carla in Ca]

9. Fan, thanks for that

I'm in a lazy mood. :thumbsup:

[AirAmFan]

11. Update: 3 Ds and 2 Rs signed yesterday, leaving 16 R refusers

16 Senators--Republicans all--still are refusing to cosponsor the lynching apology even though it's still possible to sign on as a cosponsor, days after the measure passed Monday evening. These 16 are the difference between the current list of 84 sponsors/cosponsors (at http://www.congress.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d109:SE00039:@@@P ) and the list of all 100 Senators (at http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm ).

R-AL Shelby, Richard
R-AZ Kyl, Jon
R-IA Grassley, Chuck
R-ID Crapo, Michael

R-MS Cochran, Thad
R-MS Lott, Trent
R-NH Gregg, Judd
R-NH Sununu, John

R-OR Smith, Gordon
R-TN Alexander, Lamar
R-TX Cornyn, John
R-TX Hutchison, Kay

R-UT Bennett, Robert
R-UT Hatch, Orrin
R-WY Enzi, Michael
R-WY Thomas, Craig

5 Senators (3 Ds and 2 Rs) so far have signed on to cosponsor since passage of the apology Monday June 13th:

D-ND Conrad, Kent 6/14/05
D-NM Bingaman, Jeff 6/14/05
D-RI Reed, Jack 6/14/05

R-AK Murkowski, Lisa 6/14/05
R-OH Voinovich, George 6/14/05

[gratuitous]

3. How about, "And some of my best friends . . ."

Can't imagine why Lame-ar and the others are so defensive about this. It's not uncommon for folks to sign on as a co-sponsor long after something has passed. Could they be trying to defend a political flank? No, it couldn't possibly be that; as we all know there are no more racists in the South, and everyone gets along jes fine nowadays.

[AirAmFan]

4. Larry Craig's position is exquisitely ambivalent

He signed on as a co-sponsor last Tuesday, after FOUR MONTHS of fence-sitting, and then he gave the most outspoken floor speech AGAINST the measure.

I guess that's what happens on civil rights votes when militant, organized white supremacists far outnumber African-Americans in your state. The same principle might explain the puzzling position of Kent Conrad (D-ND).

[reality based]

6. I guess these western Republicans are defending

all those lynchings of rustlers and nesters on the open range. Don't know why the New Hampshire Republicans felt the need to side with the forces of mob rule. Maybe they're plotting a raid on Boston.

[AirAmFan]

10. Any Senators from NH, RI, MA, or VT might try to argue

their states had nothing to apologize for, since those four states alone among the continental 48 supposedly had no lynching victims (see http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=1853771&mesg_id=1853992 ).

But they could not win such an argument, since the apology is for a century of Senate inaction on lynching, not lynching itself, and their states had Senators in Washington during that century.

[eleny]

8. Yesterday was a bad day for racists

Between the apology for lynchings and the Michael Jackson acquittal, they're short circuiting.