The Lynching of Poor Ole Uncle Thomas

     Let it never be said that Republicans have an unintentional gift for hilarity. Witness Ted Cruz's histrionics at a recent Senate hearing.

     It was the very first steps in the Senate seeking accountability for Thomas' dirty and secret dealings with Texas Nazi sympathizer Harlan Crow. There are the countless junkets on Crow's dime over the last two decades that Thomas never disclosed any more than he had his sale to Crow of his mother's house for $130,000+. The latter is a violation of just about the one law that binds Supreme Court justices- That the sale of homes in which they neither live nor own have to be reported in financial disclosure forms.

     Of course, Cruz didn't want to talk about that.

     He quoted Thomas during his confirmation hearing decades ago when he preemptively began whining about lynchings. Naturally, Tailgunner Ted took umbrage at that, even though it was said decades ago and that no one has ever seriously made a run at Thomas over his crooked dealings or countless rulings that have benefited his right wing benefactors like, you know, Harlan Crow.

     It was an ironic thing for Cruz to say considering it's his own party that's consistently stood in the way of anti-lynching legislation that Democrats have tried to pass and just recently had with broad bipartisan support.

     But for me, personally, the truly hilarious moments came when Cruz displayed poster boards he'd had blown up. He tried to make it sound as if they were racist memes that had been created by the radical left even though the magazine's masthead can plainly be seen at the top of each one.

     In reality, they were made back in 1996 and graced the cover of Emerge Magazine, a long-defunct publication that was run by African Americans and pertaining to African American issues. While nowadays, the covers would be considered racist by some and using racist tropes, the American public would've forgotten about them had Cruz not dredged them up then tried to pass them off as the recent work of radical liberals.

     And since the magazine was a black publication, the covers are not as racially offensive as they would've been if they'd been created by, say, the National Review. But Emerge had Thomas pegged way back when and, by Cruz resurrecting these hilarious covers, all he did was expose Thomas for what he truly is.

     But Cruz and others like him are interested only in misdirection, in trying to stir up racial shit that just doesn't exist. Yes, Democrats hate Thomas not because he's a black man or even because he's a conservative. They hate him because he's a crook who couldn't even follow the one and only ethics rule binding Supreme Court justices and disclose the sale of his mother's house.

     The sale of a house that's now owned by a Nazi sympathizer who's been treating Clarence and Ginni Thomas to overseas trips nearly every year for the last two decades, one of which would've cost Thomas $500,000 if he'd footed the bill.

     And, once again, as Watergate taught us, the original crime is always less serious than the coverup.