-By Warner Todd Huston
This story proves once again that the left doesn’t need justification, logic or reality to get a good mad on. They don’t need anything real or important to swarm upon like a hive of unthinking insects, infesting and killing a host, they just need one of their own to head off in that direction so that they can all follow, lemming-like, over that cliff.
The latest cause celebre erupted when Congressman Ted Poe (R, Texas) used a quote from a one time Confederate General in a speech on the floor of Congress. It wasn’t just any Confederate General, though, it was a quote from founder of the KKK, Nathan Bedford Forrest, CS Cavalry General in the war’s western theater.
Ooooo. The KKK founder, huh? Sounds ominous. So, what was the quote? Was it one calling blacks a bad name? Was it one dealing with race relations? Was it anything like that?
No. It was a military quote.
Forrest is famous for once saying that war is won by “who gets thar firstest with the mostest.” It is probably an apocryphal comment, but the principle is exactly the way General Forrest conducted his version of warfare with highly effective results. And it is a sensible colloquialism to say the least.
So what did the whack jobs in the Nutroots do? Why they whipped up a frenzy because Poe quoted Forrest even though it had nothing to do with Forrest’s more notorious actions.
Poe’s spokesman explained the context of the quote.
“Congressman Poe’s speech was about the troops, about funding the troops (and) about Congress paying attention to the needs of the troops,” Dunaway Thigpen said. “His speech was on supporting the troops. His quote (of Forrest) was based on military strategy.”
But, that didn’t satisfy the left. They wanted Poe’s head on a platter. It culminated in a mention on a segment where loud mouth Keith Olbermann claims to identify the “worst” person of the week on his low rated MSNBC blabber show, Countdown.
Badly garbling history, Olberman slobbered:
“See, Bedford Forrest is kind of a problem. He was called a guerrilla leader. In retrospect, many of his military actions were reminiscent of terrorism. And, oh, by the way, after the war, he became the first grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan.”
This guy is clueless. Forrest was not a “guerrilla leader”. He was an official and duly ranked general in the Confederate Army. And none of his military campaigns were “reminiscent of terrorism”. Further his life as the creator of the KKK is not as axiomatic as it seems merely by the saying of it.
Forrest originally started the KKK as an organization to support the repatriation of Southern White’s political standing in the south. It was NOT founded to be a racist, hate organization. And, when it turned increasingly violent against the south’s black population, Forrest not only quit the group but he began to work against it.
In his later years he even worked hard to restore racial harmony to his south and worked to support blacks advancement, but with little success. Yet, with enough success to be excoriated by his former friends in the hate group he founded.
Still, Olbermann’s idiocy is immaterial to the point Poe was making. Congressman Poe was not favorably commenting on the KKK or race relations in any way. He was simply using an historical, military reference, one quite free of any controversial position on any subject, to illuminate today’s military discussion.
Poe has nothing to apologize for at all.
And the nutroots prove once again that logic and sense is beyond their grasp.
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Warner Todd Huston’s thoughtful commentary, sometimes irreverent often historically based, is featured on many websites such as newsbusters.org, townhall.com, men’snewsdaily.com and americandaily.com among many, many others. Additionally, he has been a guest on several radio programs to discuss his opinion editorials and current events. He has also written for several history magazines and appears in the new book “Americans on Politics, Policy and Pop Culture” which can be purchased on amazon.com. He is also the owner and operator of publiusforum.com. Feel free to contact him with any comments or questions : EMAIL Warner Todd Huston
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