it's not often i'm able to applaud the words and/or actions of republican party officials (sad, cuz i can remember a time when it happened much more frequently).   as of thursday, i found myself doin it for the second time in two days

on 7/14/2005 (thursday  in other words), in a speech delivered to this year's annual naacp convention in milwaukee, republican national committee chief ken mehlman came clean bout one of the party's dirty lil not-so-secrets.   

i can't recall hearing a prominent white republican--much less someone in mehlman's position--criticize richard nixon's 'southern strategy' much less admit the plan had been  deliberately  devised to benefit the gop by exploiting the country's racial divide.  

after describing how his grandfather had joined the naacp sometime prior to the the first big wave of civil rights activism of the mid-60s, mehlman  conceded:

"...the Democratic Party by the 1960s had something real and tangible to overcome this legacy.  Lyndon Johnson, a Democratic President, signed what in my opinion were the most important laws of the 20th century:  the civil rights act, voting rights act, open housing law.  

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.  I am here today as the Republican Chairman to tell you we were wrong."

he then went on to ask the naacp delegates to give republicans another chance (a plea that might have been much more effective if it had been invoked by bush--who declined to attend the naacp's annual gathering for the 5th time in as many years).  

perhaps i'm being naive.  the southern strategy contributed in no small part to the republican victory in 2004.  mehlman's speech could have been a very cynical scam.  but i'm gonna choose not to see it like that because i'd so much prefer he was speaking from his heart.

like i said, this was the 2nd time this week i'd been favorably impressed by the gop.

i'm not quite sure who deserves the credit for the other one.  hopefully we'll find out someday who was finally able to help the administration see that its non-negotiable pre-negotiation demands of north korea weren't working to anyone's benefit--or, even more to the point, were working to everyones detriment.  for all i know, it may have been some liberal south korean or even the chinese.  but it was republicans who hadda decide to at least get outta the road if they werent gonna start walking somewhere...and i'm sure it wasn't easy for them to make that decision.

it just shows to go that given enuff time, anyone--possibly even john bolton--can learn the difference between demands and diplomacy.  not that i'm advocating givin this administration the 16 more years they'd need to do the job right. 

just jokin LOL