Brownback to pitch proposal apologizing for slavery

Source: Globe Staff




http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2007/10/16/brownback_to_pitch_proposal_apologizing_for_slavery/

Brownback to pitch proposal apologizing for slavery
Says he expects a fight, won't call for reparations
Senator Sam Brownback is behind in recent polls. Senator Sam Brownback is behind in recent polls.

By Jenn Abelson, Globe Staff | October 16, 2007

Senator Sam Brownback, a Republican trying to inject new life into his beleaguered presidential campaign, plans to offer a resolution this week for Congress to apologize for slavery and segregation.

Brownback, of Kansas, told The Boston Globe's editorial board yesterday he will join an unnamed Democrat in sponsoring the proposal. He said he expects a tough fight on the resolution, even though it will not include any call for reparations.

"They were federal policies," he said. "They were wrong. The only way for us to move forward . . . is at the end of day acknowledging those, taking ownership for it, and asking for forgiveness."

Brownback, in a wide-ranging interview yesterday, conceded that his campaign has languished since finishing a disappointing third in August in the Ames straw poll in Iowa. The 51-year-old Kansas senator remains in the trailing group of Republicans in the polls and in fund-raising, and says he will drop out of the race unless he places in the top four in the first-in-the-nation caucuses in Iowa.

"We're trying some different plays," Brownback said.

Read more: http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2007/10/16/brownback_to_pitch_proposal_apologizing_for_slavery/

That should boost him greatly in the eyes of the GOP base.

doesn't he mean "ploys"?

this will only make it worse in the eyes of the GOP primary voters. The base loves the old dixie.

An official apology is long overdue -- not that such a resolution necessarily leads to any meaningful policy changes (let alone reparations), but it can help pave the way for something helpful later on.

Meanwhile, Sen. Brownback should make a name for himself by authoring resolutions containing profuse apologies to every other group beaten down, cheated, and deprived by misguided federal policies past and present -- various American-Indian nations, women, GLBTs, Haitians, Iraqis, and so on. He can become known as "The GOP's Great Apologizer", or "Sen. We'reSorry" for short. The presidency is only a temporary position, whereas forgiveness lasts forever and should therefore be sought all the more urgently.

Because if it is not, then how does Brownback explain his hypocrisy?

It'd be like explaining their need to breath air. Plus, the media damn near never holds them to account for these behavioral mismatches. Sure, occasionally they'll get brought up in a joking "everybody's doin' it" way, but you won't see the same kind of rabid long-term systematic pursuit leveled against them that you would if they were Democrats.

By 2010, Larry Craig's homosexual escapades will be long forgotten (along with Vitter's heterosexual ones), but Bill Clinton's adulterous activities will be part of the public morality discourse for the foreseeable future.

maybe he's feeling guilty...

And what with Larry Craig's "wide stance" taking up so much room, it'll get mighty stuffy in there before too long.

Let's hope the angels of Sen. Brownback's gayer nature swiftly lead him to some kind of revelation. :D

I hope he sweeps the far right black vote in the Republican Party. That should help him a lot in Iowa!