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(TN) State GOP Party claims MLK, Jr. as member
WKRN Nashville ^ | April 3, 2008 | Staff Writer

Posted on 04/05/2008 3:44:32 PM PDT by Tennessee Nana

Friday marks 40 years since Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was shot and killed as he stood on the balcony of the Loraine Motel in Memphis.

Claiming King as a member, the Tennessee Republican Party is honoring him.

A release released by the state GOP Party states, in part, "Growing up in a republican household, Martin Luther King Jr. embraced the bedrock republican ideals of liberty and justice for all."

Republican Party Chair Robin Smith added, "Dr. King... and his fellow republicans passed civil rights legislation over the objection of many democrats of that era."

Some area democrats are angered by the claim.

"I think she was way out of line... Frankly, I think it is shameful," said State Democratic Party chairman Gray Sasser. "I think it demeans Dr. King's legacy for any political party, for any single person to try to claim that mantle. Dr. King's legacy transgresses political parties, it even transgresses national boundaries and we need to celebrate that legacy and try to live up to it rather than use it as a legacy to score political points."

Democrat Bob Tuke, running against republican Senator Lamar Alexander, called the release "a perverse distortion of Dr. King's legacy."

In response, Tennessee Republican Party spokesman Bill Hobbs said, "The release speaks for itself."

In addition, a radio ad from the National Black Republican Association makes the same claim.

Former editor of the Tennessean and a member of the Freedom Riders, John Seigenthaler said, "This just strikes me as ludicrous."

Ceremonies marking the death of Dr. King will be held on Friday in Memphis.

Along with state officials, republican presidential candidate John McCain and democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton will be in attendance.


TOPICS: News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; US: Tennessee
KEYWORDS: blackrepublicans; gop; mlk; tenneessee; tennessee
Robin Smith has some strange ideas
1 posted on 04/05/2008 3:44:32 PM PDT by Tennessee Nana
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To: Tennessee Nana
Robin Smith has some strange ideas

Why? mlk was a pubbie.

2 posted on 04/05/2008 3:50:11 PM PDT by USS Alaska (Nuke the terrorist savages - In Honor of Standing Wolf)
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To: Tennessee Nana

Are they saying that Dr. King was an Anti State’s Rights Republican?


3 posted on 04/05/2008 3:50:22 PM PDT by trumandogz ("He is erratic. He is hotheaded. He loses his temper and it worries me." Sen Cochran on McCain)
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To: Tennessee Nana

I hear Don King is a patriotic Republican, too. As was Jackie Robinson.


4 posted on 04/05/2008 4:00:02 PM PDT by Past Your Eyes (Bill Clinton: Life Member of the Liars' Club.)
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To: Past Your Eyes

Don King says he is a oppurtunicrat, neither republican or democrat.


5 posted on 04/05/2008 4:03:33 PM PDT by aft_lizard (born conservative...I chose to be a republican)
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To: Tennessee Nana
Photobucket
6 posted on 04/05/2008 4:27:53 PM PDT by xuberalles ("Barack Obama: Change Is A Dime Bag!" http://www.cafepress.com/titillatingtees.225246874)
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To: Tennessee Nana
"I think she was way out of line... Frankly, I think it is shameful," said State Democratic Party chairman Gray Sasser. "I think it demeans Dr. King's legacy for any political party, for any single person to try to claim that mantle. Dr. King's legacy transgresses political parties, it even transgresses national boundaries..."

Somebody please get this fool a dictionary. Did he mean transcend?

7 posted on 04/05/2008 4:48:21 PM PDT by editor-surveyor (Turning the general election into a second Democrat primary is not a winning strategy.)
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To: trumandogz
"Are they saying that Dr. King was an Anti State’s Rights Republican?"

For most of its history, the Republican party has opposed "states rights." Strange? No; it was the states that fought individual rights in the 19th century. Now fear of our massive central government is changing the party.

8 posted on 04/05/2008 4:54:47 PM PDT by editor-surveyor (Turning the general election into a second Democrat primary is not a winning strategy.)
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To: editor-surveyor

Somebody please get this fool a dictionary. Did he mean transcend?
____________________________________

Though it would be beneath me to attempt to explain the liberal mind, it would appear that the word “transcend” may be the word that the Party Chairman was intending to pronounce when he became emotional and “transgressed” language proprieties..

All the fault of President Bush and the GOP of course...

:)


9 posted on 04/05/2008 4:59:50 PM PDT by Tennessee Nana
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To: USS Alaska

Have you ever told a black person that MLK was a republican?Try it, you wont believe the look you will get.I do it all the time and the responses are well interesting.


10 posted on 04/05/2008 5:35:32 PM PDT by HANG THE EXPENSE (Defeat liberalism, its the right thing to do for America.)
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To: imahawk
I'm sure they'd look at you like you were from Mars, especially that they'd be right to give you the look, since he wasn't a Republican. He was a Socialist. Presuming he voted at all, it's unlikely he would've voted Republican for President after 1956... if he ever did. A majority of Blacks voted for Stevenson in '52 and '56. His father switched affiliations and later became a big-time Carter supporter, ironic given Carter's racism and race-baiting campaigns.
11 posted on 04/05/2008 8:15:05 PM PDT by fieldmarshaldj (~~~***Just say NO to the "O"***~~~)
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To: USS Alaska

Nope. Post #11.


12 posted on 04/05/2008 8:15:55 PM PDT by fieldmarshaldj (~~~***Just say NO to the "O"***~~~)
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