If you watched the 50th Anniversary of the March on Washington commemoration ceremonies today you might have asked yourself “Self, where are the Republicans? I see a current Democratic President, two former Democratic Presidents, but no former Republican Presidents. Why is that?”

Well, in the case of the Bushes, both pleaded ill health; W just had a stent procedure and his dad was hospitalized earlier this year for bronchitis, so they declined the invitations. Perfectly understandable, I say.

But where were the current elected Congressmen and Senators from the Republican party? They pleaded scheduling conflicts.

Right. Because who’d have thought there’d have been any sort of event planned to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the biggest civil rights moment in the nation’s history? Who’d have thought that the country might want to recognize the day when a quarter-million people turned up on the Mall in Washington DC to hear speeches exhorting the country’s political leaders to correct two centuries of wrongs done to a goodly percentage of the populace?

If I were a member of a minority group, I’d say to myself “Self, despite all the claims the Republicans make about reaching out to people of my ethnicity or gender, they’re full of crap.”