SC Senator Defends Slave Photo: ?It?s A Great Statement As To How Far The State Has Come?
Posted in Main Blog (All Posts) on September 17th, 2010 4:37 am by HL
SC Senator Defends Slave Photo: ?It?s A Great Statement As To How Far The State Has Come?
National Federation of Republican Women held its annual meeting at the Country Club of Charleston this past weekend, calling the event “A Southern Experience.” FITS news reported participants dressed in clothing from the Civil War and antebellum South era. The state’s Senate President Glenn McConnell eagerly dressed for the event as a Confederate Navy captain’s uniform. McConnell was pictured with two African-Americans in a photograph that many have observed “callously evokes the state’s slave-holding past”:
The State reports today that McConnell has no plans to apologize:
McConnell says a picture circulating on the Internet of him dressed in a Civil War-era military uniform alongside two African-Americans outfitted in period costumes was an innocent moment among friends — nothing more. […]
“It was a friendly photograph,” McConnell said Wednesday. “It’s a great statement as to how far this state has come.”
“Receive it in the spirit it was presented that evening,” McConnell urged, adding there were no apologies to be made for the effort.
Regardless of McConnell’s intent, he appears to be overlooking the emotional response the photo has conjured. “That’s the senator’s unfortunate world view,” said Rev. Joe Darby, first vice president of the state NAACP. Darby told the State that the African-Americans in the photo are in a seemingly subservient role. “Our history is still an open wound in lots of cases,” local museum director J.R. Fennel said, “for blacks and whites who don’t want to deal with it.”
Palin Advises Christine O?Donnell To ?Speak Through Fox News?
Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin appeared on the O’Reilly Factor last night to defend Delaware GOP Senate nominee Christine O’Donnell from intra-party skeptics like former Bush advisor Karl Rove, who said Republicans aren’t “going to be able to win” the general election with O’Donnell as the nominee. Palin advised O’Donnell to ignore the “political machine” and go rogue, just as she did on the 2008 presidential campaign, breaking away from “her handlers.” “Speak through Fox News,” Palin — a paid Fox News contributor — counseled her protégé:
PALIN: She’s going to have to learn very quickly to dismiss what some of her handlers want. Remember what happened to me in the VP. […]
So she’s going to have to learn that, yes, very quickly. She’s going to have to dismiss that, go with her gut, get out there, speak to the American people. Speak through FOX News and let the Independents who are tuning in to you, let them know what it is that she stands for, the principles behind her positions.
Watch it:
Indeed, O’Donnell appears to be quick study of the Sarah Palin school of media dodging, telling the staff of MSNBC’s Morning Joe that she couldn’t appear because of “family” reasons, despite making the rounds on Fox, CNN, ABC, CBS, and NBC the same day. And as Media Matters pointed out, O’Donnell thanked “a slew of Fox-tied supporters” in her acceptance speech for the nomination.
