This was one of those years on which Martin Luther King Jr.'s actual birthday--Jan. 15--coincided with its official observance. So the holiday was kept with all rites and formalities duly respected, and for a precious 24 hours peace descended on this fair land like another of the many blessings conferred upon her.
Dr. King, standing on his mountaintop like a prophet of old, used to refer to his dream of America as the beloved community and, with a few sad exceptions, it seemed like one.
The exceptions to this peaceful reign were provided not only by the loose cannon who is now the president of the United States but by members of Congress, who couldn't seem to agree on the exact vulgarity our president had used when referring to less favored nations.
Did he dismiss countries like Haiti and some in Africa with a barnyard epithet or not? A couple of senators--like Georgia's David Perdue and Arkansas' Tom Cotton--claimed they could remember no such exchange (although Senator Cotton elaborated to Chuck Todd on Sunday's broadcast of Meet the Press that "I've never denied that there wasn't strong language used in the meeting by lots of people," before adding "I was not offended"). But various members of the loyal opposition, also known as Democrats, asserted they'd been insulted by those colleagues who'd dare doubt their word.
Who knew it was even possible to insult a member of Congress after some of the stunts some of those dignitaries have pulled over the years? Their memories may be failing but their forgetting seems to be in fine working order when convenient. As for the president, he's taken refuge in deniability. What, him insult the opposition? Never happened. "Did you see what various senators in the room said about my comment?" he asked. And then answered his own rhetorical question: "They weren't made."
It's as if he expected the rest of us to just chuck them down the memory hole. The episode is starting to sound like a chapter out of George Orwell's 1984.
Back in the real world, Rand Paul--U.S. senator from Kentucky--offered this rare realistic assessment of what's happening in Congress at the moment: "Both sides now are destroying the setting in which anything meaningful can happen." Call it a bipartisan victory for meaninglessness.
The minority whip of the U.S. Senate--Richard Durbin of Illinois--told the press that the president had used the vulgarity "not just once, but repeatedly." While a fair man and U.S. senator--South Carolina's Lindsey Graham--issued a statement that seemed to support Senator Durbin's memory of what had occurred. In short, it's business as usual in congressional circles, which keep going 'round and 'round as one party points the finger of blame at the other.
Senator Cotton noted that "Senator Durbin has a history of misrepresenting what happens in White House meetings." Even the Obama administration was obliged to deny Senator Durbin's account of some comments at a White House meeting. The minority leader of the Senate--New York's Chuck Schumer--sprang to Senator Durbin's defense, saying the senator is "one of the most honorable members of the Senate." Which is not unlike claiming that Jesse was one of the more honorable members of the James gang. Talk about damning with faint praise, these strictly partisan champions of Senator Durbin seem to have developed considerable expertise at that dubious practice.
At this ever changing point in the history of congressional politics, all seems murk as the newest abnormalcy replaces the old normality. Stay tuned if you have the heart and patience for this pointless game.
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Paul Greenberg is the Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial writer and columnist for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
Editorial on 01/24/2018