McCain Claims, Shows MLK Ignorance

Martin Luther King died 40 years ago today. That means that when John McCain oppoaws the leader’s eponymous national holiday in 1983, Dr. King had been dead for fifteen years. Above you’ll see McCain explaining that he simply hadn’t yet learned about King and his civil rights work. Now, we understand McCain had been a P.O.W. during that period, but someone must have tipped him off to King’s existence.

Those of you who want a detailed account of McCain’s King education can thank the Democratic National Committee for this run-down, which includes this informative tidbit about a 1994 Senatorial vote:

McCain Voted To Strip Federal Funding From the MLK Federal Holiday Commission. In 1994, McCain voted to prohibit federal funds for the Martin Luther King Jr. Federal Holiday Commission. The Commission was established in 1984 “to encourage the observance of King’s birthday.” According to Al King, head of the California chapter of the commission, the organization “helped keep ‘senators’ and representatives’ feet to the fire to recognize the holiday.

For the record, King had been dead twenty-six years in 1994.