Television news and the internet are buzzing this weekend with news of a photo in Democratic Virginia Governor Ralph Northam’s medical school yearbook of a ku klux klan member and a person in blackface. The picture is from the mid-80’s, but the outrage is current.
The Daily Caller posted an article today that explains what the fuss is really about.
The article reports the response by Scott Jennings, who was a special assistant to former President George W. Bush, when asked on CNN ‘whether Republicans ought to “sit this one out” with regard to allegations of racism..’
This was Scott Jennings’ reply:
But I want to touch on a comment you made in the phrase human dignity because this is the second moment where Ralph Northam this week failed to respect human dignity. The first moment, of course, was when he made his ghoulish, horrific statements about abortion. This was his second PR debacle this week.
Previous to this blackface-KKK robe-moonwalking press conference he was on a radio show. He’s a pediatrician talking about — talking about aborting children at the moment of birth and then even after they had been delivered. I agree with you, Bakari. Human dignity matters and we ought to respect every human life of every race, especially these poor babies who are laying in delivery rooms when you have governors of states that think we should have a discussion about murdering them after they were born?
The article reports the response:
“OK, stop, stop stop!” Democratic commentator Karen Finney interrupted Jennings. “That’s a lie. What you’re saying is a ghoulish lie. I am on the board of NARAL Pro-Choice America. That is a lie that the right-wing has perpetuated … I heard what he said. I don’t agree with what he said and the way he said it. But what we’re talking about is making sure that, in those instances, it is a woman and a doctor — not anyone at this table or anyone in Congress — making the decision.”
Finney quickly spun the conversation back to “racism in America” without ever pointing out what exactly Jennings had said that was not true.
This is exactly what Governor Northam said:
“So in this particular example if a mother is in labor, I can tell you exactly what would happen, the infant would be delivered. The infant would be kept comfortable. The infant would be resuscitated if that’s what the mother and the family desired, and then a discussion would ensue between the physicians and the mother,” he said.
The entire purpose of this controversy was to take the Governor’s comments about abortion out of the news cycle. One commentator stated that he had the photo in October, but didn’t run with it because he couldn’t prove the source. If a conservative commentator had the pictures, it’s a pretty safe bet that the Democrats had them. Governor Northam committed the unpardonable sin in the Democrat party–he told the truth about abortion. I don’t think he will be asked to step down. The subject has been changed, and what has happened to him has warned other Democrats to avoid the subject. Mission accomplished for the Democrat party.