Doubling down on the race card

Congressman Bobby Rush — a former member of the Black Panthers — has been leading the fight to install Roland Burris as the next US Senator from Illinois.

Rep. Rush argues that the Senate needs an African American member, to better reflect the nation’s diversity. I couldn’t agree more.

It strikes me as essential that a black leader be chosen to fill Barack Obama’s unexpired term.

But Rep. Rush has relentlessly played the race card in the most hysterical terms, accusing Democratic lawmakers of trying to “lynch” Burris.

“It reminded me of the dogs being sicced on children in Birmingham, Alabama,” he declared, in an MSNBC interview. “That’s what it reminded me of.”

That kind of rhetoric is disgraceful. It diminishes the sacrifice of the men and women who suffered in Birmingham and it reflects a near-total divorce from reality.

Whatever Mr. Burris’s personal credentials, and whatever the color of his skin, he has displayed craven ambition — and a breathtaking lack of dignity — in associating himself with Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich.

Gov. Blagojevich has been accused by a Federal prosecutor of trying to sell the Senate seat to the highest bidder.

Until Mr. Burris broke ranks, his fellow Democrats –including President-elect Obama — insisted that any appointment he made would be permanently tainted. They were right.

It now appears that Mr. Burris will be confirmed. Governor Blogojevich will have prevailed, and the stain of scandal will spread to Washington.

There will be an African American in the Senate, but one with a huge asterisk beside his name. That’s hardly a victory for the civil rights movement that Rep. Rush claims to champion.