Mississippi Republican Governor Haley Barbour tells CNN's Candy Crowley that it's no big deal that Virginia Republican Governor Bob McDonnell celebrated the treasonous confederacy without mentioning slavery (transcript):
Gah! It's hard to believe that a sitting governor would say those words, isn't it?
These Republicans are stuck so far in the past that they don't represent yesterday, they represent the day before the day before yesterday. Will somebody please wake up Haley Barbour and let him know it's 2010 and that it's not cool to deny that the treasonous Confederacy was fighting to protect the institution of slavery?
Oh, and one more thing. Barbour says it must be okay to honor the Confederacy because nobody has ever complained about Mississippi celebrating Confederate Day each April. Except one problem, Haley's claim is a lie. The holiday is in fact controversial in Mississippi.
Mississippi's events aren't embraced by everyone.
"I think it's unfortunate that the governor is so insensitive to the atrocities made against African-Americans in this country by the former Confederate States," said Derrick Johnson, president of the Mississippi NAACP. "As governor of the state with a higher percentage of African-Americans that any other, we would hope he would be more sensitive to them."
"We have always raised out opposition to any memorial day that would raise some type of positive light on the Confederacy that broke away from the United States," Johnson said. "We consider that treason."
If you want to go and wrap yourself in the Confederate flag, that's your prerogative, Governor Barbour, but don't go pretending like nobody thinks you're back assward racist for doing so. They do, and they're right.
