Milk It

I marched with Dr. Martin Luther King in 1963.

Let me repeat that.

I marched with Dr. Martin Luther King in 1963. Isn't that an awesome statement to be able to make? How many people can actually say that they were there with Dr. King, during the dark days before the landmark Civil Rights Act was signed? Not many, that's for sure. How many contemporary politicians were registering African-Americans to vote in the Deep South during the '60s, like I was? Very few.

What have I done for African-Americans lately? Well, to be perfectly honest, not much. I have spoken out against affirmative action and helped get anti-affirmative action judges John Roberts and Samuel Alito on the Supreme Court. I support a war that has killed hundreds of Blacks and maimed thousands more, and I was the chairman of the committee that rubber-stamped Michael "Brownie" Brown as head of FEMA in just 42 minutes. Hell, I've even engaged in race-baiting attacks against Ned Lamont that are ethically dubious. But none of that matters. You want to know why?

I marched with Dr. Martin Luther King in 1963. My great deeds of the past outweigh my paltry support for the African-American community recently. See, it's sort of like the Rolling Stones. 'Satisfaction', 'Jumpin' Jack Flash', and 'Paint it Black' were all released in the '60s. Can anyone name some songs that they have they released in the past twenty years? I sure can't! But The Stones can still go on stage and play the old chart toppers, and nobody cares that they haven't done jack squat creatively for two decades. They're living off of their classic hits, just like I am.

I'm gonna milk my historical association for the civil rights movement for all its worth. Here's what I had to say yesterday at an event in New Haven:

In the rest of his speech, Lieberman referred repeatedly to his work in the 1960s marching and registering voters in the South... At a certain point during the anecdote, one of his staffers shouted out derisively 'Where was Ned?' Lieberman grinned and said 'That's a good question, where was Ned?' While not a devastating blow, it does seem reasonable to wonder why Ned Lamont wasn't in the South in the early 1960s registering voters like Joe Lieberman was. Apparently, Ned's lame excuse is that he was in elementary school.

Elementary school? Ha! He still wasn't there. I don't care that Maxine Waters has endorsed Ned, or that Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton will be campaigning with him before the big vote on August 8th. There's only one MLK, Mr. Lamont. I was with him, and you were not.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go add the classic Stones hits 'Sympathy for the Devil' and 'Start Me Up' to my Ipod.