Bobby Rush is amazingly insensitive
In all the to do about whether or not the U.S. Senate should allow Roland Burris to assume Barack Obama's vacant Senate seat, Rep. Bobby Rush (D-IL) has been one of Roland Burris' staunchest defenders.
Unfortunately, when Rush went on MSNBC’s Hardball he uttered one of the dumbest statements I've heard yet this year.
Time mark: 1:27
It reminded me of the dogs being sicced on children in Birmingham, Alabama. That’s what it reminded me of.
Really?
So when the U.S. Senate refused to seat Roland Burris that reminded Bobby Rush of this:
With all due respect...are you shitting me?
During the civil rights era, Birmingham, Alabama was nicknamed "Bombingham" because the racial violence was so extreme there were numerous instances of bombings against African-American churches. A city where Eugene "Bull" Connor not only sicced dogs on people but also allowed police and firemen to use fire hoses on those people. Fire hoses with streams of water so powerful that they could strip bark off trees. Honestly. Some terrifyingly inhumane things went down during the civil rights era.
But sure. Not seating Roland Burris is just about the same as that.
Except not at all.
Not that this is the first time Bobby Rush has compared this situation to the violence against African-Americans during the civil rights era.
..."I would ask you to not hang or lynch the appointee as you try to castigate the appointer," Rush said Tuesday in promising to lobby congressional leaders, including U.S. Senate Democratic leaders who have vowed not to seat Burris or anyone appointed by the embattled two-term Democratic governor...
..."You know, the recent history of our nation has shown us that sometimes there could be individuals and there could be situations where schoolchildren -- where you have officials standing in the doorway of schoolchildren," Rush said. "You know, I'm talking about all of us back in 1957 in Little Rock, Ark. I'm talking about George Wallace, Bull Connor and I'm sure that the U.S. Senate don't want to see themselves placed in the same position."...
I think anyone who actually had a dog sicced on them (or worse) or knew someone who did should get a free kick to Bobby Rush's nuts for saying something so monumentally insensitive and intentionally inflammatory.
I absolutely agree that it would be right for Obama's vacant seat to be taken by an African-American as Obama was the only sitting African-American Senator. But so callously and crassly playing the race card as Rush is doing is more than distasteful. It is offensive.
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JD,
You beat me to the punch on this one. I was infuriated with the analogy and was going to blog it but you didi first...
When will people realize that comparing seemingly irrelevant issues to the dark chapters of our history just demeans and belittles the sacrifices made by those who suffered the consequences? When Mr. Rush used the term "lynch" at the Burris press conference I just rolled my eyes. I think you are too kind in categorizing Mr. Rush's latest comments as insensitive. I think they were outright idiotic and show his lack of respect for our sometimes painful history.
Again, another well written piece!
By all means, go ahead and write something about it. Behavior like this deserves reprimand.
Much akin to Dodd's Corollary (which states: When debating a particular subject, if a comparison or implied connection is drawn between the opponent's argument and Hitler and the Nazi Party, the maker of that statement is automatically discredited and the debate is automatically lost by the person or group who referenced the connection to Hitler or the Nazis.) this kind of comparison does nothing more than make Rush look like an imbecile.
If I was Burris I would be embarrassed that Rush was my cheerleader.
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