Lamar Gets Republicans On The Right Side Of A Racial Conflict

By Kleinheider Posted on May 5, 2008 at 7:33 am

Otis Sanford points out the richness in the irony of the political cudgel that Lamar Alexander is using to beat over the head of Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid:

“Your actions insult the Mid-South’s largest city, Memphis. Until Bishop Graves’ appointment in 2006, a Memphian had never served on the TVA board.”

Then comes the zinger.

“Your actions are an affront to more than one and a half million African Americans in the seven-state TVA region.”

Alexander then points out that until the appointment of Graves — “the presiding bishop of the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church — an African-American had never served on the TVA board.”

It’s as if Alexander was also telling Reid, “God’s going to get you for this.”

Talk about irony. Alexander is gaining a political advantage using the fact that, before Graves’ appointment, African-Americans had been excluded from service on the TVA board.

Of course, the reason for the exclusion is that no Southern senator and no U.S. president — most of whom have been Republicans for the last 27 years — saw fit to appoint a black person or a Memphian to the board.

And Reid is the one getting beaten over the head for it now.

Ah, politics. You’ve got to love it.

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