The GOP Marshall Plan

It's time to Break It Down!

The 24-Hour news cycle is no joke. Since last week, President Obama jettisoned his top Military Advisor on Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, Tim Scott, defeated Paul Thurmond, scion of Strom in a run-off, becoming the Republican nominee for South Carolina’s 1st Congressional District, Nikki Haley won the Palmetto State’s GOP Gubernatorial nomination, the One-year Anniversary of the death of the King of Pop passed, the venerable Senior Senator from West Virginia, the Honorable Robert Byrd, died, and the Kagin Supreme Court Hearings commenced.

I have, on a number of occasions, used this space to point out some of the more indecipherable, occasionally despicable actions and comments of South Carolina political figures. I am not declaring them totally redeemed after the past week, but in all honesty, the electorate did take a couple of positive steps.

In a previous post, I addressed Ms. Haley’s contest. An Indian American, she survived a whisper campaign, laced with assertions of sexual impropriety, overcame the racial epithets of a fellow South Carolina politician, and withstood challenges regarding her faith tradition. An advocate of Tea Party ideology, Ms. Haley is now set to fight or the job in what is expected to be a competitive General Election.

Tim Scott also has an interesting story. In addition to besting Strom’s son Paul, he also eliminated Carroll Campbell, III; yes, former Governor Campbell’s son. Did I mention Mr. Scott is African American? I should add quickly, Scott’s rise is no fluke. He brandishes conservative credentials that cause GOP National Committee Chair, Michael Steele to blush…with fervent anticipation. Speaking of Scott (and Haley after their victories), he said, “Within our ranks, among our grass-roots, are a number of very exciting and very engaging candidates who don't look like or sound like what people have come to expect to be typical Republicans. I'm very proud of that."

Scott, an avid anti-tax candidate sports a conservative pedigree that boasts never having voted to increase taxes, serving as Honorary Co-Chair for Strom Thurmond’s last Senatorial campaign in 1996, and garnering endorsements and support from a GOP Who’s Who that includes Eric Cantor, Mike Huckabee, Sarah Palin, Kevin McCarthy, and Karl Rove. It is a virtual foregone conclusion that Scott will go on to defeat his not-so-well funded opponents in November, and become the first African American Republican member of Congress since J.C. Watts retired in 2003. In the final Run-off tally, Scott led Thurmond 69%-31%...in a district that favored McCain over Obama, 56%-42%.

While it is difficult to resist delving into General McChrystal’s episode of channeling Billy Crystal; it is almost sacrilegious to give short shrift to the demise of the King of Pop. Yet I am going to do both. POTUS did what had to be done regarding the General. In the end, McChrystal fell on his own petard for two reasons. Surely, he wanted to avoid the embarrassment of the public beheading of his career. But he did it also, because in the hierarchical and honor-driven parlance of the Military, it was the “Right thing to do!” End of story.

The central theme of this post revolves around an interesting twist of irony. Two events of this week, seemingly connected only by their relative correlation in time and space, The Kagan Confirmation Hearings, and the Death of West Virginia Senator Byrd, coalesced in a way that demonstrates how far we have come, and yet, just how far we have to go.

We will hear countless tributes to the dearly departed Senator Byrd. Make no mistake about it; he made his mark in many ways. No puns about having been a rare bird, here.

The Senator was born, Cornelius Calvin Sales, Jr., November 20, 1917 in North Wilkesboro, North Carolina. His mother, Ada Mae, died in the 1918 Flu Pandemic. In accordance with her wishes, his father dispersed the family’s children among relatives. Young Cornelius was adopted by Titus and Vlurma Byrd, an uncle and aunt, and renamed, Robert Carlyle Byrd. He was Valedictorian of his high school, married his high school sweetheart, Erma Ora James, and attended several colleges in West Virginia. He eventually graduated from what was then Marshall College (University), and earned a law degree from American University’s Washington College of Law.

Martin Luther King, Jr. noted, “Longevity has its place.” Senator Byrd served as a Senator from West Virginia from 1959 until his death in 2010 prior to that he served three terms as a member of the United States House of Representatives from West Virginia. He has the distinction of having been both the longest serving Senator, and the longest serving member of the U.S. Congress.

Senator Byrd held many important posts in the Congress, and sponsored numerous pieces of important legislation in his 57 years of Congressional service. However, I want to mention, briefly, a post he held in another famous American institution, and a position he took on the losing side of an historic legislative act. In 1942, at age 24, Robert Byrd joined the Ku Klux Klan. Based on what was perceived as his “talent for leadership,” Byrd was soon elevated to Exalted Cyclops, the highest position in his local chapter. Suddenly, he was the inverse of Cy Sperling’s Hair Club for Men commercial; he was not just a member, but also the president.

Later, in 1946 or 1947 Byrd wrote a letter to the Grand Wizard stating, "The Klan is needed today as never before, and I am anxious to see its rebirth here in West Virginia and in every state in the nation.”

These events preceded his Congressional career. But the 1940’s were not the end of Byrd’s Walk on the Vile Side. He was part of an 83-day filibuster of the Civil Rights Act of 1964; personally filibustering the bill for 14 hours. He also opposed the Voting Rights Act of1965; though he later voted for the Civil Rights Act of 1968.

While some eyes wide-open, pragmatic thinkers, suggest Senator Byrd’s conversion was New Math, Congressional style…that is to say he realized, as did a number of his cohorts, he would either have to adapt on such issues as civil rights, or he would find himself marginalized in a political party in the process of reinventing itself. In Byrd’s version, which he related to the Washington Post in 2005, it was his membership in the Baptist church that led to his change of heart. For the purpose of this discussion, that is where I will end the conversation of the unreconstructed Senator Byrd. Ultimately, he aligned his views to the outlook of a new era, regardless of his motivation.

Enter the Kagan Confirmation Hearings. In a “What goes around comes around” sort of way, the advent of Civil Rights legislation of the 60’s was the catalyst for complex game of Political Musical Chairs. Recall that One of President Obama’s heroes is Abraham Lincoln, a Republican.

Historically, Southern Democrats resisted the Civil Rights movement, and all its appendages. The passage of Johnson’s landmark legislation was made possible only by the actions of several Northern Republicans of good will joining the yea votes. Rather than make the unconscionable choice that Senator Byrd made, a number of erstwhile Southern Democrats chose to switch parties, rather than their hateful racist ways. Hence, the Party of Abraham Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt morphed into the Party of Strom Thurmond and Jesse Helms.

The current iteration of this artful subtext-filled drama began unfolding as key members of the GOP began what should have been, ostensibly, their interrogatives of Elena Kagan, with a volley of attacks on former Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall’s judicial philosophy. Never mind that Kagan clerked for Marshall more than 20 years ago; forget that Marshall has been dead since 1993; by all means, do not take into consideration Marshall actually won confirmation…in 1967; just pull up a chair and enjoy the show.

For all intents and purposes, this appears to be akin to what Shakespeare’s Macbeth referred to as, “Sound and fury, signifying nothing.” In other words, the opposition has vetted the nominee and come up with a sum total of squat. Ergo, deflect, obfuscate, and play the “Thurgood Marshall card.” That way, they can appeal to the base, and conclude, triumphantly, “We really showed ‘em!”

Monday’s spurious sophistry included such gems as:

• Arizona Senator Jon Kyl noting, “Justice Marshall’s judicial philosophy is not what I would consider mainstream.” Kyl also added, Ms. Kagan wrote in a tribute to Marshall, that, “In his view, it was the role of the courts in interpreting the Constitution to protect the people who went unprotected by every other organ of government.” Kyl argued further that Ms. Kagan also emphasized Marshall’s “Unshakable determination to protect the underdog.”

• Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions, top ranking GOP panel member branded Marshall a ”well-known activist,” not unlike Sarah Palin’s community activist (intended) put down of then candidate Obama

• Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley added, Marshall's legal view "does not comport with the proper role of a judge or judicial method."

• Texas Senator John Cornyn called Marshall "a judicial activist," and noted that his "judicial philosophy concerns me."

As the Senators took turns taking shots, their staffers provided reporters with a dossier of Justice Marshall’s reputed offenses, which included, Justice Marshall:

• Endorsed judicial activism

• Supported abortion rights

• Believed the death penalty was unconstitutional

It is worth noting that before the hearings, one of the oft-repeated knocks against Ms. Kagan is that she has no judicial record, nor any substantive history of lawyering. The irony of ironies is that Thurgood Marshall, longtime NAACP attorney, and U.S. solicitor general, won 29 of the 32 cases he argued before the Supreme Court.

So here we are. Robert Byrd changed his evil ways long ago, and apologized for them…repeatedly. He went on to distance himself from those ill conceived positions. Yet, nearly 50 years after Senator Byrd’s Civil Rights Act filibuster, and over a decade into the 21st Century, the guardians of the GOP, when provided an opportunity to investigate the legal ideology of the Jewish woman who will be the next Supreme Court Justice, are content to spend their allotted time attacking  and ridiculing the judicial philosophy of a black man who died in 1993. Let us all marvel at “The GOP Marshall Plan!” I’m done; holla back!

Read my blog anytime by clicking the link: http://thesphinxofcharlotte.blogspot.com. A new post is published each Wednesday. For more detailed information on a variety of aspects relating to this post, consult the links below:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/28/AR2010062803119.html?wpisrc=nl_pmheadline

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/28/AR2010062805129.html?wpisrc=nl_pmheadline

http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2010/jun/26/rejection-of-thurmond-a-loss-worth-celebrating/

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE65K4W220100623

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/22/AR2010062205401.html

http://new.music.yahoo.com/blogs/hiphopmediatraining/282596/anniversary-of-michael-jacksons-death-evokes-anger-sadness-and-peace/

http://www.votetimscott.com/about/

http://www.votetimscott.com/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDk_ZfYuyfY

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macbeth