Haley Barbour took a moment from gnawing on a pig’s ear to loosen his double-windsor and chortle a coded defense of a Confederate hero from the American Civil War (1861-2011):
Asked by reporters today in Jackson, Mississippi, Barbour not only refused to denounce efforts by some to create a license plate honoring Confederate general and Ku Klux Klan founder Nathan Bedford Forrest. He said he was out of the denouncing business altogether.
“I don’t go around denouncing people,” said Barbour, the Jackson Clarion-Ledger reports. “That’s not going to happen. I don’t even denounce the news media.”
Forrest
Barbour also added: “I know there’s not a chance it’ll become law.”
Forrest was a slave trader before the Civil War, who became known during the war for his significant innovations in military strategy — and also, the paper notes, for leading a massacre of captured black Union troops at Fort Pillow, Tennessee. He founded the Ku Klux Klan after the war, but later left the organization.
This country was built on the backs of people bought, sold, and killed by Nathan Bedford Forrest. What a hero. Haley Barbour’s 3-legged-race buddy Tony Hayward thanks you for your inspiration.
Give certain people the chance to fly their intolerance flag via car accessories, and they’ll take a half day of work off to stand in line at the Secretary of State’s office.
The Legacy of Civil Rights: Racism doesn’t die. It just gets more passive-aggressive. USA!