Every Day the GOP got our Backs (in their sights)!

Senator Al Franken (sorry, I'm projecting out to 2008) has an editorial in the LA Times discussing the Republican calendar that gives a daily reference to the civil rights accomplishments of the Grand Old Party. As Franken notes:

Now, it is true that Republicans have been involved in civil rights issues for a century and a half. For the first 100 or so years, they were the party that was "for" civil rights.Then they switched sides with the Democrats, and for half a century they've been more involved on the "against" side.That's why most of the Republican civil rights calendar's entries mark achievements before the advent of the modern flush toilet. For instance, the entry for April 17 reads: "1823 — Birth of Arkansas Republican Mifflin Gibbs, elected in 1873 as first African-American judge; later appointed by President William McKinley as Consul to Madagascar." Definitely an achievement. But not necessarily one that would convince a suspicious African American voter 130 years later that today's Republican Party is in his corner.

Read the entire article... and check the calendar

I don't need to comment on the sorry efforts to court Black voters...
But with this, Laura Bush's promises to kick it in Compton (the urban youth initiative) and their faith based cash payouts to Black pastors, at least the Republicans are trying to court Black voters. They might eventually hit upon some strategy that's not piss-poor, so maybe theDems should think about possibly re-engaging their oft-neglected key to their base. They don't need to lose any more stalwarts. Do they?