Republicans get an "F" in history

So this morning, while on Twitter making fun of Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele and his almost-too-laughably-stereotypical-to-be-true decision to call his new blog "What Up?," I noticed that the RNC's website had taken the clever step of superimposing people's faces over the "O" in "GOP." Gives it that "real person" vibe and all that, see?

Sometimes it's regular folks, which they call "Faces," like the ones shown in this little collage I put together:


And sometimes it's one of the "Republican Heroes," historical figures who were Republicans, like former U.S. Sen. Edward Brooke (R-Mass.), American Red Cross founder Clara Barton, and famed abolitionist Frederick Douglass (top to bottom):


But the very first person I saw when I clicked onto the RNC site was this man:


Now it just so happens that I'm a bit of an American history buff. And I thought this "Hiram Rhodes," pictured above, looked familiar. Well, it also just so happens that I'm presently reading a book by Philip Dray called Capitol Men: The Epic Story of Reconstruction Through the Lives of the First Black Congressmen (New York, Houghton Mifflin Co., 2008). And Chapter 4 of that book, called "The Whirligig of Time," deals almost entirely with the great historical feat in 1870 of a black man, a Republican, claiming the U.S. Senate seat from Mississippi that previously had been held by none other than Jefferson Davis.

That man was Hiram Revels. Hiram Rhodes Revels.

The modern-day Republican Party -- the lineal (but hardly ideological) successors to Hiram Revels' party -- forgot to include his last name. I didn't change it or doctor it in any way. If you're quick, you can go see for yourself (although you might have to F5 it a few times* to get Revels' picture) before someone with the GOP figures this out (if they ever do).

What an embarrassment. Even when the GOP tries to do something relatively docile, they can't help but screw it up. They're not just the "Party of No," they're the Party of No Competence.

UPDATE (5:15 pm 10/13/09): Nope, still says "Hiram Rhodes." Epic fail.

(cross-posted in substantial part at Daily Kos)

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* Be careful, though: when I went over to the site just now to confirm something, I was blocked from it!

I got this message: "Database Error: Unable to connect to your database. Your database appears to be turned off or the database connection settings in your config file are not correct. Please contact your hosting provider if the problem persists." Either their site is down, or they affirmatively blocked me because I refreshed their site too many times. Frightened much, GOP?

UPDATE (12:59 pm 10/13/09): Never mind. Apparently it's not just me ... and there are a lot of problems with their new website. Still, being the history buff I am, I like this one the best. ;)

Jefferson-Jackson Dinner 2009: liveblogging, page 6

Sorry ... I was away for a moment, trying to figure out how I broke Twitter. Again, mea culpa. I'll try not to do it again.

Anyway, keynote speaker Tim Kaine, governor of Virginia and chairman of the Democratic National Committee is up ... and he was greeted by a brief but noisy protest: "Choice! Choice! Choice!" from one table, in response to his support of a Virginia law that restricts a woman's right to choose; he's also opposed to stem cell research. Yes, he's Catholic ...

*****

Well, I've managed to miss most of Gov. Kaine's speech because of technical difficulties. Not only did I break Twitter, I also briefly broke my own internets. So I'm playing catch-up a bit. Sorry about that. But as Gov. Kaine speaks, someone keeps shouting something periodically ... I can't hear it from here, though. Interesting.

You know ... I have to tell you, I'm pretty much switching off mentally right now. Sorry about that. I suck. (Oh, except Kaine just mentioned Michael Steele, which garnered a good laugh from the assembled Democrats here.)

Let's not kid ourselves, says Gov. Kaine, that this is going to be easy for Democrats. We're in a tough time economically, plus military conflicts and such ... our opponents know what they're against, but not what they're for. "They're the party of 'NO.' " But we're lucky, because we have a moment in our hands right now that generations of Americans haven't had. We'll be measured by what we do in this moment, whether we support the president's agenda or say "you folks in Washington figure that out." But there's no time to rest, no time to be complacent. I know this: you don't know how long a moment will last. Well, I can tell you this: we've created this moment. It's nearly unique in the history of this great nation. So we've got to do as much as we can for as many as we can for as long as we can. Are you ready for that sense of urgency?

*****

That's it from Miami Beach, folks. Thanks for reading along. And, again, sorry for breaking Twitter.