Haley Barbour's silence speaks volumes

By Eugene Robinson
WashPost
Friday, February 18, 2011

Does Haley Barbour really have a warped and offensive view of America's racial history? Or is he just playing a dangerous game?

Perhaps both.

The Mississippi governor, considered a potential Republican candidate for president in 2012, keeps displaying what appears to be an astonishing level of ignorance about our nearly 400-year struggle with issues of race. At this point, it's more than a pattern. It's either a pathology or a plan.

The latest outrage - and I don't use that word lightly - came Tuesday, when Barbour was asked to comment on a proposal for a state license plate honoring one of the most notorious figures of the Civil War era, Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest. I question whether any Confederate officer is worthy of such recognition, given that they were all committing treason. But even for the Sons of Confederate Veterans - the group proposing the license plate - Forrest should be an embarrassment.

(More here.)