Posted on 09/07/2010 6:19:19 PM PDT by toma29
WASHINGTON — No need for a rewrite — or a reweave — of the new rug in the Oval Office. President Barack Obama's spokesman said Tuesday the White House was correct to attribute a famous quotation in the rug's pattern to Martin Luther King Jr., even though the civil rights leader acknowledged being inspired by a 19th-century abolitionist, Thomas Parker.
"It was not us that thought he said it, it was many people that believed — rightly so — that he said it," press secretary Robert Gibbs said.
The wheat, cream and blue rug, which debuted in the Oval Office last week, features the presidential seal in the center and quotations from famous Americans around the border. It was made by the Scott Group of Grand Rapids, Mich.
Describing the rug, a White House statement credited King for these words: "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice."
It's one of Obama's favorite King sayings. And no one disputes that King said it exactly that way — perhaps most memorably to the Southern Christian Leadership Conference on Aug. 16, 1967.
But Parker's adherents note the Transcendentalist and Unitarian minister wrote this in his 1853 treatise "Of Justice and the Conscience": "I do not pretend to understand the moral universe; the arc is a long one ... And from what I see I am sure it bends towards justice."
Jamie Stiehm, writing in The Washington Post on Saturday, said crediting King but not Parker "goes beyond the beige."
"We certainly all learned a lot of important history," Gibbs said Tuesday. "What King said and what Parker said are not the same thing."
He also noted neither man's name is actually on the rug. None of the quotations has names attached.
(Excerpt) Read more at google.com ...
The White House would defend toe cheese.
Just watch, if we get a Republican in there in 2012, they won’t have the balls to replace it.
This thing is a liar of epic proportions for even a democrat.
This mob is a disgrace. Hey America! What the hell were you thinking back there in November 2008?
Baghdad Bob can certainly lie on his feet well.
and you wonder why our government schools turn out morons????
What?? You got a problem with that? I'm pretty sure Dan said that at one time or another -- so I'm going to give him credit for the quote. It's the way things are done now.
D’oh. Pathetic Gibbs has to defend the indefensible. And the ignorance. And the incompetence of not have the quote fact-checked before they even ordered the rug. More amateurism, from Foggy Bottom to the Oval Office.
And Betty Crocker coined the phrase “Let them eat cake”!
Of course they do ... truth be damn
Bush would just have the rug replaced and apologized to the American people for the mistake (he would have taken responsibility for the error like a true leader).
“Fake but accurate” If it’s good enough for rather, it’s good enough for them.
Who pulled the rug out from underneath the WH? Why in God’s name are they defending such idiocy? It makes them look incredibly incompetent. (Perhaps they are!)
The myth of MLK is built on lies so why should this matter?
The list, ping
Let me know if you would like to be on or off the ping list
I bet Fibbs, Axelrod, Rahm, and Obama think they coined the phrase, “What we have here is failure to communicate.” This from the “Great Communicator” Obama.
Looks like a flying carpet to me. So Barkbark can make his getaway once the electorate realize what a phony American he is.
He must be a student of and an admirer of Goebbels; ya think?
He could have used any of these quotes:
How fortunate for governments that the people they administer don't think. Adolf Hitler
If you tell a big enough lie and tell it frequently enough, it will be believed. Adolf Hitler
The great masses of the people will more easily fall victims to a big lie than to a small one. Adolf Hitler
It is not truth that matters, but victory. Adolf Hitler
The day of individual happiness has passed. Adolf Hitler
The rugs belong to the presidents and they take it with them. Each one designs their own.
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