[note" a correction in my title : Forrest did not found the KKK, he was an early, prominent member]
Oh my.
It's hard to imagine how the GOP can get much more knuckle-dragging and atavistic than this !
What's next, sex with quadrupeds on the Capital Steps ?
Well, that was my sarcastic initial reaction anyway but, as usual, the truth is more tangled.
Is this a big deal ?
Well first of all, Bruce Catton attributed the quote cited by Texas Republican Ted Poe, on the floor of the US House Of Representatives yesterday, as actually a misquote of a doctrine espoused by Confederate General and KKK "founder" (he was actually an early, prominent member) Nathan Bedford Forrest, "to git thar fust with the most men" which, in itself, is a good idea in warfare.
As an additional point, the Democrats have plenty of Klan skeletons in their closet too, and Woodrow Wilson, someone on this post pointed out, endorsed D.W. Griffith's fantastically racist "Birth of A Nation". But, do Democratic Party politicians cite people such as Forrest ?
Forrest seems a wee bit controversial for his role in getting the KKK going, if only by lending his considerable name, via his early membership
Shall I post some pictures of lynched, half-burned black men to remind people of why Forrest is considered controversial ? To Forrest's credit he left the KKK in the end because of its violence, but nonetheless the bulk of American domestic terrorism can be attributed to the movement Forrest helped spawn. I also have to wonder about Forrest's change of heart about the KKK ; was the Fort Pillow Massacre haunting the man ? We may never know.
Here's the Wikipedia on Nathan Bedford Forrest, a self-made man and military genius, early KKK member, and possible war-criminal.
Nathaniel Bedford Forrest (July 13, 1821 – October 29, 1877) was a Confederate army general. He is often associated as the founder of the Ku Klux Klan; however, he actually was not. He was a member of the organization in its early stages, but left after it became racist and he even tried to abolish the Ku Klux Klan.
Forrest was perhaps the American Civil War's most highly regarded cavalry and partisan ranger (guerrilla leader). Forrest is regarded by many military historians as the war's most innovative and successful general. His tactics of mobile warfare are still studied by modern soldiers. Forrest was also, however, one of the war's most controversial figures, accused of being a war criminal and having led Confederate soldiers to massacre unarmed black Union troops at the Battle of Fort Pillow.
Answer Guy brought to my attention the massacre, at Fort Pillow, of African American Union Soldiers during the Civil War that has been attributed to Forrest. Quoth the Wikipedia [sans links]:
The Battle of Fort Pillow, also known as the Fort Pillow Massacre, particularly in the North, was fought on April 12, 1864, at Fort Pillow on the Mississippi River in Henning, Tennessee, during the American Civil War. The battle has caused great controversy about whether a massacre of surrendered African-American troops was conducted or condoned by Confederate Major General Nathan Bedford Forrest. Military historian David J. Eicher wrote, "Fort Pillow marked one of the bleakest, saddest events of American military history
*****
The Carpetbagger Report, and Roll Call got the scoop on this one, and here's the skinny:
Roll Call reports today that a House Republican delivered a foreign policy speech yesterday in which he quoted Nathan Bedford Forrest, founder of the KKK.
[Carpetbagger citation of Roll Call] On Monday, Rep. Ted Poe took to the House floor to discuss foreign policy matters. To make a point, the Texas Republican invoked the words of Civil War Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest: "Git thar fustest with the mostest."
The quotation got some floor watchers’ attention pretty quickly. Forrest is a controversial figure who was one of the Klan’s first grand wizards. Although the Civil War hero (if you were a Confederate, that is) ultimately abandoned the Klan for its violent tactics, he continues to kick up dust.
"Controversial figure" doesn’t quite cut it. Most lists of the worst Americans in U.S. history include Nathan Bedford Forrest near the top. That’s what happens when someone creates the KKK to terrorize freed slaves and their allies, after taking up arms against the United States. What on earth would possess a GOP lawmaker to quote Forrest on the House floor?
Poe's citation was, according to Civil War historian Bruce Catton as cited by the Carpetbagger Report, a misquote of a Forrest doctrine, "to git thar fust with the most men."
So, is this a big deal or not ?