Al Franken Nails Republican Race Baiting

How can you not love Al Franken? In Sunday's Los Angeles Times he has an hysterical op-ed entitled "A Year-Round Party For Blacks" which takes the Republican Party to task for their recent promotion of the idea that the GOP is interested in recruiting African Americans into its ranks.
His point is best summarised by examining the now-infamous calendar (2005 Republican Freedom Calendar: Celebrating a Century and a Half of Civil Rights Achievement by the Party of Lincoln) the House GOP leadership is promoting as the centerpiece of the campaign to convince black people the Republicans have their best interests at heart and to reach their stated goal of 30% of the Black vote in 2008 (Bush got 11% to Kerry's 88% in 2004, up from 9% in 2000). I have commented on this ploy (plot?) before so I will let Big Al do the talking:

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.

...

Republicans might have responded to the
election with some soul-searching.

Bush took a promising first step by noting
the gap in life expectancy between black and
white men. But instead of raising the issue
as a prelude to offering a solution, he used
it as one of a litany of dishonest arguments
for Social Security privatization.

This is typical Republican race-baiting: the
cynical use of race to push an agenda.

Take the confirmation battles over
Condoleezza Rice and Alberto Gonzales.
When Democrats held up the confirmations
for reasons (lies, torture) clearly having
nothing to do with their race or ethnicity
(black, Latino), Republican officeholders and
commentators accused Democrats of racism.
But they didn't mention the Democrat-backed
"minority confirmations" such as those of Rod
Paige, Colin Powell or Mel Martinez — or the
fact that Democrats had voted to confirm 37
of Bush's black and Latino judicial nominees,
while Republicans blocked 13 of Clinton's.

Zing!