Elephants Never Forget (But Should)

Doom and gloom seems to be a very appropriate emotion for the Republicans these days, as they face a bleak political forecast, with perhaps a half-dozen of their Senate seats up for grabs in 2010 – pushing the Democrats closer to a veto-proof majority, much less a filibuster-proof one.

But something Senator McConnell said today was just too stupid to let go:

McConnell said the party must appeal to black and Hispanic voters. To diversify the party, Republicans should remind African-Americans that the GOP was founded in response to the Kansas-Nebraska Act, an 1854 law that gave those states the right to determine whether or not to allow slavery, and seek culturally conservative Hispanic voters, who may be more inclined to side with the party on social policy, he said.

So Mitch’s best answer for why blacks should vote Republicans in this 232-year old country of ours is unpopular legislation passed 154 years ago that sparked a Civil War six years later.

Doesn’t he understand the concept of “what have you done for me lately?”

I mean, seriously what is this guy thinking? Blacks didn’t start drifting away from the GOP until the Great Depression, when FDR began showing that the Democrats could manage economic policy in a way that benefits urban whites and blacks alike.

And now, as the GOP engages in its best collective impersonation of Herbert Hoover, they are expecting to get credit for opposing legislation 154 years ago?

Do they really not have any better answer or excuse for being taken seriously by anyone – black or white?