What color is your hypocrisy? (Remember Mehlman's Apology to NAACP)

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06300/733389-153.stm

When Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman apologized to the NAACP last year for the GOP's four decade use of racial divisions to win elections, black people were understandably skeptical.

It's not that we're too stuck up to appreciate apologies. Lord knows we'd jump for joy over an apology for slavery, even if it meant we'd have to turn around and apologize to white people for VH-1's "The Flavor of Love."

What made Mehlman's apology suspect was its counter-intuitive logic. Why was the RNC chairman in Milwaukee apologizing to the NAACP's national convention for his party's successful use of racial wedge issues?

After all, by appealing to the worst instincts of white people -- especially in the south -- Republicans had kicked Democratic butt in most elections for nearly 40 years.

Still, we'll never forget Mehlman's apology at the time: "By the '70s and into the '80s and '90s, the Democratic Party solidified its gains in the African-American community, and we Republicans did not effectively reach out. Some Republicans gave up on winning the African-American vote, looking the other way or trying to benefit politically from racial polarization."