http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20060207/opcom07.art.htmI remember a few years ago (1996?) when Colin Powell said something at the Republican Convention similar to this: We need a Republican party that doesn't just pretend to support African-Americans during an election year.
I can add something to Powell's words: We also need a Republican party that doesn't just pretend to support African-Americans at funerals.
"Three years ago, on the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr., Bush announced his opposition to an affirmative action program at the University of Michigan. King was a strong supporter of “compensatory or preferential treatment” for blacks who have been disadvantaged by the combined effects of nearly 250 years of slavery and the Jim Crow century that followed. It was a view King's wife shared."
"Shortly after Bush announced his opposition to the Michigan affirmative action program, Mrs. King said she was filing a legal brief in support of the school's admission policy."
"In 2004, a day after laying a wreath at the grave of Martin Luther King Jr., Bush made a recess appointment of Federal District Court Judge Charles Pickering to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Opponents of Pickering's nomination accused him of taking positions that threatened black voting rights."
"...Mrs. King said nothing publicly about the symbolism of Bush's action..."