Gov. Barbour Silent On Proposed License Plate Honoring KKK Leader **UPDATED**

Jason Attermann — February 15, 2011 – 5:04 pm | Civil Rights | Election 2012 | Republicans Comments (0) Add a comment

Governor Haley Barbour (R-MS) has yet to publicly deplore a campaign by the Sons of Confederate Veterans to create a special license plate honoring Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest, best known as a Ku Klux Klan (KKK) leader.

According to CNN:

Barbour has not responded to the controversy since it began making headlines last week. He spoke this weekend at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, D.C., and is said to be setting his sights on a run for the White House in 2012. He finished 15th in a CPAC straw poll. A call to the governor’s office from CNN on Monday has not been returned.

As Garance Franke-Ruta noted in The Atlantic:

There are some bright shiny lines in American political life at the national level. One of them is that it’s an easy call to say negative things about the KKK when asked to do so, and that this does not require any particularly complex level of thought or strategy. If you’re not ready to cross that line, you’re not ready to be president. Period.

Barbour’s lack of swift action further confirms that he is not ready for prime time and that he is more beholden to the unfortunate racial politics of his state rather than the sensibilities of most Americans, including the vast majority of American Jews.

This is not the first time that Barbour has displayed himself as being outside mainstream on a variety of racial and civil rights issues:

• Barbour’s “Fairy Tale” History of Segregation
• Haley Barbour Walks Back Remarks On Segregationist Citizens Council
• Have They No Shame #5: Barbour on McDonnell
• Former GOP Head Shown Supporting Group That Touts Holocaust Denial, Defense of Racism

 

** UPDATE February 15 **

The Associated Press is reporting that Governor Haley Barbour (R-MS) refuses to denounce the proposed license plate honoring the Confederate General and early Ku Klux Klan (KKK) leader Nathan Bedford Forrest:

Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour says he won’t denounce a Southern heritage group’s proposal for a state-issued license plate to honor Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest, who was an early leader of the Ku Klux Klan.

Barbour is a potential 2012 Republican presidential candidate.

Questioned by reporters Tuesday in Jackson, Barbour said he doesn’t think Mississippi legislators will approve the Forrest license plate proposed by the Sons of Confederate Veterans.

The group wants the car tag in 2014 as part of a series of Civil War license plates.

Mississippi NAACP president Derrick Johnson has called on Barbour to denounce the license plate idea.

Asked about that Tuesday, Barbour replied: ‘I don’t go around denouncing people.’

Barbour’s refusal to denounce the proposed license plate raises serious issues about his judgment and calls into question whether he would be able to represent all Americans, especially American Jews and other minorities, should he become president.

As we pointed out previously, if an elected official cannot bring themselves to denounce the glorification of a KKK leader, they simply are not ready to be president.

 

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