As Ronna Romney McDaniel continues to dodge questions about Dave Agema's series of bigoted comments, she made a fairly significant gaffe today on her Facebook page when she repeated a claim -- first voiced by her uncle, Mitt Romney -- about Martin Luther King that was discredited years ago.
Romney McDaniel, the frontrunner to become the new Michigan Republican Party chair next month, saluted Martin Luther King Day in her post by saying that her grandfather, former governor George Romney, "marched side by side" with King during the civil rights movement. That never happened. Her uncle initiated this canard when several times in 2007 during his first presidential run he claimed that he "saw" his father march with King. Media reports and experts found that Romney and King never appeared together.
It would seem very likely that Romney McDaniel knows all of this. But she resurrected the myth again today. Her post includes a photo of George Romney marching in a 1963 civil rights protest in the Grosse Pointes. But MLK is clearly not in the picture.
PolitiFact scrutinized the issue in 2007, found the claim "Mostly False," and reported this:
"The (Boston) Globe interviewed Susan Englander, associate director of the Martin Luther King Jr. Research and Education Institute at Stanford University, who said, 'I researched this question, and indeed it is untrue that George Romney marched with Martin Luther King.'
PolitiFact added this:
"... But it's also clear that George Romney, who served as governor from 1963 to 1969 and died in 1995, supported King's goals at a time when few politicians did. ... (In 1965), Romney led a march of 10,000 people in Detroit to protest events in Selma, Ala."
Agema, of course, is accused of blatantly engaging in -- and promoting -- hate speech against blacks, gays and Muslims. A tea party favorite and Romney McDaniel's Michigan colleague on the Republican National Committee, Agema has defiantly rejected calls for his resignation from the RNC.
Numerous high-level Republicans at the state and national level have either demanded that Agema step down, or that the party remove him from his position.
Romney McDaniel has done neither. She has not even taken the basic step of condemning Agema.
As she walks this tightrope, cozying up to the tea party while also embracing the GOP establishment, today's Facebook post certainly won't help her keep her balance.
Odd that she would do this. She easily could've written that that her grandfather supported the efforts of Dr. King at the time, counter to what other politicians were doing. She strikes me as a fairly bright young woman, but not sure the best person for the Michigan GOP is one so reliant on her family name instead of her personal accomplishments.
ReplyDeleteAre you still working at the paper, Chad? Haven't seen anything there from you in at least a month.