AN EXCUSE TO SLING MUD

A strange way to mark MLK birthday
By Kelvin Wade January 20, 2011

In November 2010, near the anniversary of the murder of President John F. Kennedy, Daily Republic columnist Bud Stevenson wrote a column blasting JFK for his affairs. He attacked Joseph Kennedy and then moved on to Bobby and Ted. He even saved room for a dig at Ted Kennedy's son. Reading it, I couldn't surmise the point of trashing a man's family on the anniversary of his murder.

In light of that, it didn't really surprise me that Stevenson decided to 'celebrate' Martin Luther King Jr. Day this week by pointing out that King had affairs. You can pretty much guarantee that if Stevenson is writing about MLK, it's going to be about his adultery or plagiarism, certainly not any of the speeches, marches and actions that led to this great American patriot having a national holiday.

From there Stevenson revisited the Kennedy brothers' sex lives.

Then he clumsily attempts to make the column about the 'fact' that wrongdoing by liberals is covered up by the media while wrongdoing by conservatives (Scooter Libby, Tom DeLay) are trumpeted.

What utter nonsense. The media that didn't expose John F. Kennedy's affairs back in the early 1960s were reticent to detail anyone's affairs. When Walter Jenkins, an LBJ aide, was arrested in a YMCA bathroom with another man in an obvious gay affair in 1964, several newspapers refused to print the story. It was a different time then.

Eventually the story came out and Jenkins resigned.

But as far as the 'liberal media' implementing a 'cone of silence' around progressive scandals goes, where's the evidence? Democratic Rep. Gerry Studds was censured in 1983 for a sex scandal with an underage male page. Did the liberal media hide Gary Hart's affair? Gary Condit, anyone? Jesse Jackson's love child was covered in the press. Remember former New Jersey Gov. Jim McGreevey, who resigned after his gay affair came to light? What about former New York Gov. Elliot Spitzer, whose affair with a prostitute resulted in his resignation? Was John Edwards' affair and lovechild not extensively covered? Democratic Rep. Eric Massa resigned after allegations surfaced of wrestling and fondling male staffers.

And no sex scandal was covered more than Bill Clinton's.

Yes, there have been many Republican scandals. Packwood, Gingrich, Livingston, Vitter, Foley, Craig, Ensign and Sanford come to mind. But to say one side's scandals are trumpeted and the other's are downplayed is untrue. This is nothing more than conservative victimhood.

My fear is that this was just an attempt to tear down a man whose 'crime' was trying to lift a nation up. What end does it serve?

But right-wing paranoia aside, now isn't the time to smear the memory of a good man. In 2011, Dr. King's message is as timely as ever. To paraphrase him, as a community, as a state, as a nation, we don't have time to drink from the cup of bitterness and division.

'We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.'

Peace.
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ADDITIONAL NOTES: I believe this marks the first time I've ever used Bud Stevenson's name in a column. Sure I've alluded to things he's written. In my mind, I thought it would be unseemly and indulgent to get into a full-blown tit for tat with a colleague at the paper. But I've had it.

When I read that November column of his, I was disgusted. It seemed to be just a sleazy hit piece with no point but to trash the Kennedy family on the anniversary of JFK's murder. Then when i read Bud's column this week, it was more of the same. This isn't new. Like I wrote, when Bud mentions MLK, it's usually going to focus on a foible. And I don't know what Stevenson's goal is in doing this. No one has to approve of the Kennedy family or MLK, of course, but these columns of Bud's running around the JFK assassination anniversary and MLK holiday are so small. If one disagreed with Martin on the Vietnam war or believes there shouldn't be a King holiday, those are legitimate arguments. But if every year all you have to say is, "He was a womanizer," what's really going on?

This wasn't the column I was going to run this week. I had another column written. I was merely going to blog about Bud's column. But I just felt I had to put it out there in a column. I was thinking of a quote of Dr. King's, "A time comes when silence is betrayal." I couldn't be silent on this. I had to put it out there in the paper so everyone could see it, including Stevenson.

I haven't talked to Bud. He hasn't contacted me. I don't know what his response will be. Hopefully, if there is one, it'll be thoughtful. This isn't the original version of this column. I was on fire when I wrote it. Then I slept on it and realized I could make the same point without the (buzzword of the moment) vitriol.