McCain Stood by David Duke in '90, Still Does

The Huffington Post is reporting that, despite his recent rash of qualms over decades-old civil rights issues, John McCain is standing by at least one of them:

In 1990, McCain was one of the deciding votes in helping then-President George H.W. Bush sustain a veto against the relatively benign Civil Rights Act of 1990.

In doing so, the senator found himself at odds with majorities in both chambers of Congress, most senior African Americans within the Bush administration, and the Republican-led U.S. Civil Rights Commission. He also helped Bush became the first president ever to successfully veto a civil rights measure -- Andrew Johnson in 1866 and Ronald Reagan in 1988 both had vetoes overridden.

On its own, McCain's defense that he simply doesn't believe in quotas is barely there, since the bill did not establish quotas, but rather required employers to demonstrate a "business necessity" to screen out applicants based on race or gender. That's like saying manslaughter statutes create quotas of people that you can't kill.

Coupled with the aforementioned late and/or partial epiphanies on race and civil rights issues, and the whole thing gets uncomfortable. Hard to chalk this up to a lack of expertise, like with the economy.

Of course, the part of this story that best illustrates how McCain constantly finds himself on the wrong side of these issues is this:

When a motion to override the veto came to the Senate floor, there was question as to whether it would receive the 67 votes needed to pass. The environment was so charged that white supremacist David Duke watched from one section of the Senate gallery while civil rights leader Jesse Jackson stood briefly at the chamber's other end.

If you're standing shoulder-to-shoulder with David Duke on civil rights, maybe you ought to re-read that bill. Given 18 years to think about it, you ought to be able to take a few steps away from him.

Here's hoping that President McCain will have the good sense to hire someone who is an expert on civil rights, since based on his current timetable, he'll figure this one out by the end of his second term.