The Ghosts of Mr. Massie

The Ghosts of Mr. Massie: "WorldNetDaily columnist Mychal Massie is one of the small army of black conservatives Republicans are trying to cultivate, a member of the group Project 21 (you know, the organization whose only paid employee is white). He earned two Slantie Awards this year; the main reason was a Dec. 14 column in which he called Senate minority leader Harry Reid's criticism of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas' legal opinions as poorly written 'arrogantly racist,' adding: 'His Uncle Bull Connors [sic] and his Uncle Orval Faubus must be proud of him. ... He is simply being true to his inbred familial heritage [as a Mormon].'

Disproportional and silly as it was -- and despite the fact that Massie has absolutely no substantiation of racist intent on Reid's part -- we understand the occasional lapse into overheated rhetoric (though that didn't stand in the way of awarding him the Slantie honor).

But, in his Feb. 8 column, Massie did it again. Instead of just one or two senators, he decided to smear the entire Democratic party:

While many of my colleagues have publicly denounced Democrat opposition to Dr. [Condoleezza] Rice as being racist and spiteful. [sic] I submit they are not acting out of character – quite the contrary: They are in perfect keeping with the beatings, dogs and fire hoses of Mississippi and Alabama. They are fully representative of Bull Connor and Orval Faubus.

In their minds, persons of color who do not descend to their level of moral turpitude need not apply. What a message to send to young women struggling to break free of the generational cycle of alcohol, drugs, out-of-wedlock births and abortion.

The only evidence Massie offers that Democrats are 'racist' and worthy of being lumped with notorious segregationists Faubus and Connor (whose name he gets right this time) is that Democratic senators were not as friendly as Republicans during Rice's confirmation hearing for secretary of state. After claiming th"