This site blew up last night, as did quite a few others, with the news that organizers of the March on Washington 50th Anniversary commemoration did not invite America's only black U.S. senator to speak. How you could ignore Sen. Tim Scott at a commemoration of Dr. Martin Luther King's "I Have A Dream Speech" is hard to fathom until you recognize that the event was organized by partisan Democrats and Scott is a Tea Party Republican.
So now that news of the snub is spreading, organizers are trying to cover their backsides by telling Roll Call that they kinda, sorta, invited Scott (but not to speak) and since they received a reply back from his staff that he wouldn't be in town, they figured he wouldn't be available to speak so they didn't bother to invite him. The left is trying to spread this around as "the real story" or something.
The Scott snub story debunked? Not by a long shot. Look into this claim a little bit and you'll find how hollow it really is.
First, what Scott received was a form letter sent to every member of Congress, only asking the members to show up as spectators in the audience. It did not invite him to speak. The form letter didn't even get his title right, calling him "Representative Scott." Now, if you've ever worked for an elected official, you know that the first thing his schedulers do is check his schedule to see if it's even possible to accept the invitation. Since Scott was scheduled to be in South Carolina on the date of the event, the form letter received a response that was equally formulaic, saying, sorry, he won't be in town but keep us in mind for other things.
A staff assistant sent the reply based on a quick check of the schedule, because that's all the form letter warranted. It's standard when someone merely wants an elected official to attend an event, not even to participate in it in a meaningful way, and he's scheduled to be out of town.
Scott spokesman Greg Blair told Roll Call that no one ever contacted Scott personally to ask him to speak or play any other sort of significant role. The excuse of the organizers is, well, his office told us he would be out of town.
That's a load of crap. If you're serious about putting together an event like this to honor Dr. King, you at least make an attempt to get ahold of Sen. Scott personally and let him know how important his presence would be because he is, in fact, the nation's only black U.S. senator at the moment. You don't just send a form letter that every other member of Congress received, asking for him to attend as a spectator, then let it go at that.
By the way, columnist Cheri Jacobus, who writes for The Hill, is now reporting that the Republican National Committee provided event organizers with a list of recommended speakers - including Senator Scott - and the list was completely ignored.
Of course it was. They didn't want Tim Scott at the event because he is a Republican. If they had wanted him, they would have made at least a moderately serious effort to get him. Now they're trying to pretend they did, but you only have to read a few details to understand that is not the truth.
