A Trip Down Memory Lane In North Carolina

One would have to strain to be shocked that a racist ad is finding its way out of the bowels of conservativism in North Carolina. For political observers from the 1980s will remember that Senator Jesse Helms--an early sign of the shift of racially conservative whites in the South from their ancestral home in the Democratic Party to the GOP--was a master of using divisive tactics to undermine his African-American opponent for the U.S. Senate, Mayor of Charlotte North Carolina (not to mention white opponents such as Governor Jim Hunt, too).

Morris Dees of the Southern Poverty Law Center, recalled this unsavory record upon Helms' retirement in 2002:

Hurrah. Jesse Helms has been a vicious racist politician since he defeated the Greek N.C. Rep. Nick Galifanakis with the slogan "Elect one of us" in his first Senate race in 1972. In his 1992 race with Harvey Gannt, the African-American mayor of Charlotte, N.C., he ran an advertisement showing a black hand snatching away a job from a white hand, harking back to Jim Crow politics. He has been against everything good, decent and positive for America.

Yet, it did not go away wiith Helms' retirement from politics, or conservative claims to have gotten beyond their racial animus in North Carolina or the rest of the country. With an African American likely becoming the Democratic nominee for President this year, the old playbook has come in handy. And once again, as in the past when other conservatives sat ildy by and claimed Jesse was just being Jesse, now Republican nominee John McCain throws his hands up in the air as if there is nothing he can do:

ABC NEWS’ Bret Hovell and Russell Goldman report: Sen. John McCain said Thursday that if elected president -- and becomes the de facto head of the GOP -- he would not demand a change in the leadership of the North Carolina Republican Party despite condemning its plan to air an ad attacking Sen. Barack Obama, D- Ill, and his controversial minister.

In my book, The Real McCain: Why Conservatives Don't Trust Him And Why Independents Shouldn't, I recount McCain's questionable past on issues of race. From the many years he rejected a Martin Luther King Jr. holiday to his serial flip-flops on the Confederate Flag (not to mention his association with a known white supremacist, Richard Quinn) .

John McCain and his conservative friends: Much closer to "pandering" than "straight-talk" on race.