Daily Kos Smears McCain as Anti-King Racist

John McCain spent the day in Memphis commemorating Martin Luther King, Jr., and apologizing for his early opposition to the MLK national holiday:

John McCain honored the sacrifice and legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. and said today that he was wrong to oppose a federal holiday for King.

"I was wrong. I was wrong," he said in front of the Lorraine Motel after an impromptu tour of where King was assassinated 40 years ago. "We can all be a little late sometimes in doing the right thing, and Dr. King understood this about his fellow Americans."

Some in the crowd heckled him, but others shouted, "We forgive you. We forgive you."

The presumptive Republican nominee also told the crowd, gathered in the rain, about when he learned of King's assassination, from the guards at the "Hanoi Hilton," where he was being held as a prisoner of war after being shot down over North Vietnam.

"I remember first learning what had happened here on the fourth of April 1968, feeling just as everyone else did back home, only perhaps even more uncertain and alarmed for my country in the darkness that was then enclosed around me and my fellow captives," he said. "In our circumstances at the time, good news from America was hard to come by. But the bad news was a different matter, and each new report of violence, rioting, and other tribulations in America was delivered without delay. The enemy had correctly calculated that the news from Memphis would deeply wound morale, and leave us worried and afraid for our country. Doubtless it boosted our captors' morale, confirming their belief that America was a lost cause, and that the future belonged to them.

"Yet how differently it all turned out," McCain said in remarks that he also plans to make later today to the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the civil rights group that King led. "And if they had been the more reflective kind, our enemies would have understood that the cause of Dr. King was bigger than any one man, and could not be stopped by force of violence. Struggle is rewarded, in God's own time. Wrongs are set right and evil is overcome. We know this to be true because it is the story of the man we honor today, and because it is the story of our country."

The Democratic National Committee attacked McCain's statements as insincere, but Markos Moulitsas sinks to a new low in yellow-bellied smears:

McCain claims he voted against an MLK holiday because of ignorance about "the issue", as if he needed position papers and highly paid lobbyists to explain to him what Dr. Martin Luther King meant to our nation.

Still, even his claimed ignorance on the topic strains credibility. Perhaps because it just isn't true. Check out what he said about his POW captors in a 1987 interview with USA Today:

"They never gave us any meaningful news," McCain said. "They told us the day that Martin Luther King was shot, they told us the day that Bobby Kennedy was shot, but they never bothered to tell us about the moon shot. So it was certainly selected news."

McCain claims ignorance about MLK because his state didn't have black people, but he knew. His captors told him about it. The issue isn't one of "I didn't know about the issue", but one of "MLK ain't shit". What else could it be?

It's clear as day, especially considering that as late as 1987, McCain didn't consider the assassination of Martin Luther King "meaningful".

A sentiment, I'm sure, shared with his good friends Trent Lott and George Allen.

I watched newsclips from the Lorraine Hotel thoughout the day. McCain's statements appeared heartfelt, and his interaction with members of the audience appeared enthusiastic and genuine.

(Think Progress can't get enough of the McCain heckling).)

Today is not a national holiday itself, days when we normally get a break from intense political polarization - but today's recriminations over King's legacy are a sure sign of how nasty this year's campaign's going to be.

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