Conservative Commentary by Ed Donath ------------------------- © Copyright Ed Donath July 26, 2009 All rights reserved worldwide. >> Bookmark This Page

Let's have a beer and recalibrate.                                         subscribe via RSS

Wouldn't it be great if you could get away with saying whatever came to your mind without ever having to apologize? 

Let's say you made an insensitive spur-of-the-moment remark to your wife.  Is there any chance that she would ever forget what you had said let alone quit the cold shoulder treatment without an apology?

"Honey, I probably could have calibrated those words about you acting stupidly by over-salting the tomato soup differently.  Come over here and have a beer with

me?"  Oh yeah.  That would work.

Well, let's say you're the President of the United States and you made some unwise, poorly though-out, critical remark about an interaction between one American citizen and another. 

You might be able to dazzle both parties into forgiveness by inviting them over to your crib for a beer and a chat.  Your high position and that historic loaner home might just enable you to get away with never saying "I'm sorry".

Now let's change out the players.  In place of a white police officer and a black Harvard professor let's insert two nations -- say, Israel and Syria. 

Instead of a mix-up over a locked-out resident appearing to be a burglar, let's say that the Israeli border patrol had arrested an innocent Syrian because he was wearing an outfit that resembled the one that the last suicide bomber wore.

Would saying, at a prime time televised press conference, that Israel had acted stupidly serve to advance world peace or, for that matter, any other cause? 

Would making a subsequent statement about word-recalibration be the same as an apology for getting it wrong? 

Would inviting the two nations' leaders to the White House for a beer make it all right?

Perhaps we should recalibrate our criticism of a guy who's in way over his head and is trying to mitigate his lack of experience and his inability to ad lib by generally sticking to the script that's written out on his teleprompter? 

No.  Because the reality for those who are so prone to word mis-calibration is:

If you keep your mouth shut tight, your foot can't get in.

Who was it that proclaimed: "Don't tell me words don't matter!"?

For the record...

• Democrats worked hand-in-glove with the Ku Klux Klan for generations; they started the KKK and endorsed its mayhem.
• KKK was honored at the 1868 Democratic National Convention, no Democrats voted for the 14th Amendment to grant citizenship to former slaves
• The records of Congress reveal that not one Democrat in either in the House or the Senate voted for the 14th Amendment.
• Three years after the Civil War, and the Democrats from the North as well as the South were still refusing to recognize any rights of citizenship for black Americans.
• South Carolina Gov. Wade Hampton at the 1868 Democratic National Convention inserted a clause in the party platform declaring the Congress' civil rights laws were "unconstitutional, revolutionary, and void."
• It was the same convention when Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest, the first grand wizard of the KKK, was honored for his leadership.
• Eisenhower (Republican) signed the GOP's 1960 Civil Rights Act after it survived a five-day, five-hour filibuster by 18 Senate Democrats.
• 1964, Democrat President Lyndon Johnson signed the 1964 Civil Rights Act after former Klansman Robert Byrd's 14-hour filibuster, and the votes of 22 other Senate Democrats, including Tennessee's Al Gore Sr., failed to scuttle the plan.
• As recently as 1960, Mississippi Democratic Gov. Hugh White had requested Christian evangelist Billy Graham segregate his crusades, something Graham refused to do. "And when South Carolina Democratic Gov. George Timmerman learned Billy Graham had invited African Americans to a Reformation Rally at the state Capitol, he promptly denied use of the facilities to the evangelist. (Is this why the left hates Christians because they are still racist).
• Until 1935, every black federal legislator was Republican, and it was Republicans who appointed the first black Air Force and Army four-star generals, established Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday as a national holiday, and named the first black national-security adviser, secretary of state.
• Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has said: "The first Republican I knew was my father, and he is still the Republican I most admire. He joined our party because the Democrats in Jim Crow Alabama of 1952 would not register him to vote. The Republicans did. My father has never forgotten that day, and neither have I."
• John F. Kennedy's (Democrat) brother, Robert, in 1964 assisted the FBI's efforts to destroy Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. by approving the wiretapping of the man considered the heart and soul of the civil rights movement.
• Sen. John F. Kennedy (with an eye on the Democrat presidential nomination for 1960) voted against the Civil Rights Act of 1957, the law that really got the ball rolling on federal civil rights legislation.
• 1964 Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 would never have become law if not for Republican senators and congressmen whose overwhelming support offset extreme Democrat opposition.
• President Nixon who implemented the first affirmative action program with the Philadelphia Plan in the late 1960s. The plan required government contractors to set goals and timetables for hiring minorities. Nixon was a Republican and a crook.

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• George Wallace the Democratic Governor that stood on the step of High Schools, and College's promising that schools would remain segregated. Had black demonstrator’s water cannoned in the downtown streets of Birmingham. Senator Byrd who just passed away was an active member of the KKK.
• Sen. Ernest Hollings, leading Democrat Senator known for use of racial slurs against several minority groups
• Lee P. Brown, former Clinton cabinet official and Democrat mayor of Houston who won reelection using racial intimidation against Hispanic voters
• Andrew Cuomo, former Clinton cabinet official and Democrat candidate for NY Governor who made racist statements about a black opponent.
• Dan Rather, Democrat CBS news anchor and editorialist known for using anti-black racial epithets on a national radio broadcast
• Donna Brazile, former Gore campaign manager known for making anti-white racial attacks. Brazile has also worked for Jackson, Gephardt, and Michael Dukakis
• Franklin D Roosevelt, Democrat icon and orchestrator of Japanese Internment
• Dick Gephardt, former affiliate of a St. Louis area racist group
• Robert Byrd, former Ku Klux Klansman known for making bigoted slurs on national television
• Jesse Jackson, Jackson was the featured prime time speaker at the 2000 Democrat Convention. Jackson has a history of using anti-Semitic slurs and derogatorily calling New York City “Hymietown.”
• Rev. Al Sharpten, Democrat activist and perennial candidate and race hustler known inciting anti-Semitic violence in New York City
• Cragg Hines: Hines is one of the most rabidly partisan DC based Democrat editorial columnists to work for a major newspaper, and he makes no attempts to hide it.
• Orval Faubus, Democrat Governor of Arkansas and one of Bill Clinton's political heroes was an  opponent of school integration
• Lester Maddox, Democrat Governor of Georgia was a major opponent of school integration
• J. William Fulbright, Arkansas senator and political mentor of Bill Clinton filibustered against 1964 civil rights act.
• Albert Gore Sr., Tennessee senator, father and political mentor of Al Gore Jr. who has been known to lie about his father's opposition to the Civil Rights Act.
• Sam Ervin, North Carolina senator of Watergate hearings fame filibustered against 1964 civil rights act.
• Richard Russell, famed Georgia senator and later President Pro Tempore filibustered against the 1964 civil rights act.