’)Ross Douthat posts – in the midst of arguing that Republicans can’t really really admit they used racism because liberals might point out that… they 
used racism (you see kids, it’s the liberals that are feckless and conservatives were just race-neutral, and if that meant having to talk b.s. about blacks, well…) – that former GOP chairman Ken Mehlman apologized when he spoke to the NAACP in 2005. This bit of history has taken on a life of its own, and I seriously ask if Mehlman actually apologized.
Here’s what Mehlman actually said:
Some Republicans gave up on winning the African American vote, looking the other way or trying to benefit politically from racial polarization. I am here today as the Republican Chairman to tell you we were wrong.
Clearly Mehlman is admitting the existence of the southern strategy – which is clearly a positive step, and he’s saying it was the wrong thing to do. But he, at least to my eyes, is not apologizing for it. He doesn’t go on to say that the Republican party apologizes for its racist strategy and that the party will fight against that kind of behavior. In fact the next words out of his mouth are:
But if my party benefited from racial polarization in the past, it is the Democratic Party that benefits from it today.
It’s probable that I may be unfairly asking Mehlman, the GOP and conservatives to show their work here, but when you say someone apologized shouldn’t they actually have apologized? It’s kind of absurd that it took the Republican party until 2005 to even admit these basic historical facts, but I’m not sure it’s worth sexing up to make Mehlman communicate a sentiment he didn’t actually communicate.
You should also remember the reaction of conservative leader Rush Limbaugh in advance of Mehlman’s appearance. Limbaugh is (obviously) no fringe voice in conservatism, and for many is the day to day voice of the right rivaled only by a few elected officials in influence, and this is his position on Mehlman even appearing before the NAACP (something Bush refused over and over to do):
Know what he’s going to do? He’s going to go down there and basically apologize for what has come to be known as the Southern Strategy, popularized in the Nixon administration. He’s going to go down there and apologize for it. In the midst of all of this, in the midst of all that’s going on, once again, Republicans are going to go bend over and grab the ankles.
For the kicker, Mehlman goes on in his address to note all the big black Republicans who were gearing up to win elections in 2006 – people like Michael Steele in Maryland, and Ken Blackwell in Ohio. People who lost. Big. Because even when its a black politician, black voters do not trust the right.
Well, if Mehlman actually had some real influence, ore represented any constituency besides closeted GOP operatives, or ever had any chance of running for an office of some sort, his statements _might_ have some value. But he doesn’t, so they don’t.