Dutch's shame

On the advice of my brother Kevin, mom and I watched a movie from 1999 called The Hurricane last night. Denzel Washington is typically outstanding as Rubin Carter, an aspiring boxer set up by crooked Paterson cops in the mid-60s. A powerful, if slightly altered, telling of Carter's brutalization by naked racism.

Film also offered perspective on the recent attempted whitewashing (literally) of former US president Ronald Reagan's sad civil rights record. Bob Herbert smacks down a Times colleague who recently wrote that Reagan's campaign visit to Philadelphia, Mississippi in 1980 was, if anything, an 'innocent mistake'. Anyone not sucking on a Republican crack pipe understands that intoning 'states' rights' in the place where 3 civil rights workers were massacred in 1964 is like poking a beaten dog in the eye with a stick.

Keep this in mind as GOP candidates invoke Dutch's with mystical reverence. Republican campaigns have always -- and will always -- emit a dog whistle to ears longing for racist harangues. In 2007, 'illegals' is the new bark-bringer. Plus ca change, plus c'est le meme chose .........