Editorial comment
Bias in column
I found Clarence Page’s recent column, “Obama 2.0,” to be completely biased against Republicans and typically supportive of Democrats/Obama.
His most egregious paragraph referred to Republicans as guilty of a “white backlash” when it came to Martin Luther King Jr.s’ civil rights legislation.
His statement could not have been further from the truth of history. See quote following, which can be confirmed at any website on the Internet. I hope Mr. Page will correct this misinformation in a future article, but doubt he will since Democrats like to mistakenly take credit for civil rights:
“One final element was essential to passage of the civil rights bill — the strong support of Republicans. Although Democrats had a historically large majority in the House of Representatives with 259 members to 176 Republicans, almost as many Republicans voted for the civil rights bill as Democrats. The final vote was 290 for the bill and 130 against. Of the “yea” votes, 152 were Democrats and 138 were Republicans. Of the “nay” votes, three-fourths were Democrats. In short, the bill could not have passed without Republican support. As Time Magazine observed, ‘In one of the most lopsidedly Democratic Houses since the days of F.D.R., Republicans were vital to the passage of a bill for which the Democratic administration means to take full political credit this year.’”
Joan Morgan Schleicher
Kailua-Kona
Editor’s note: The quote is an extract from Bruce Bartlett’s book, “Wrong on Race: The Democratic Party’s Buried Past,” according to his blog. Bartlett, a conservative, was deputy assistant secretary for economic policy at the Treasury Department, in the administration of George H.W. Bush.
