[Civil Rights, White House]

Coretta Scott King's Funeral.

Allow me to deviate from this week's topic for a moment, and spend a post on the fracas that Coretta Scott King's funeral has caused. Several speakers took the opportunity to hammer Bush--who was in attendance--which unsurprisingly caused the right wing scream machine to, well, scream. The screamers felt it was "inappropriate" to politicize the funeral, apparently forgetting who the funeral was for. (See Froomkin and Kurtz for media round-ups of the event.)

I'm not going to go into the issue of whether we should take the argument of rich white people seriously about what's "appropriate" for a civil right leader's funeral. What I will say is this: Bush had it coming. No politician has more successfully exploited race than Bush. During the 2000 election, he alternated between appearing with black people at stump speeches and appearing at Bob Jones University. He secretly smeared McCain in South Carolina, appealing to white racists with a push poll alerting them to a "black" baby McCain had adopted (she was Bengali). He filed an amicus brief in the suit to eliminate race considerations at Michigan. And all the while, he keeps appearing with nonwhite, working class people to appear openminded.

And what about all the blacks he's appointed? Again, don't ask idiots like Rush Limbaugh whether that's good for blacks, ask blacks. Down the line, folks like Condi and Rod Paige push proposals blacks overwhelmingly disapprove of. Sure, they're black, but they don't represent black views. That's cheap exploitation.

And finally, you have to ask whether Coretta would have minded a little politicization. Here's Bush, a huge enemy of the Kings' activities, appearing at Coretta's funeral, purely for appearances. Do you really think she would have minded, on the sole occasion Bush chose to poke his head out of the echo chamber, that people used it to crack him publicly for his crimes and misdemeanors? I don't think so, either.