Black Republican Ad & Debate over MLK Political Affiliation

We suspect that the controversy over this ad - airing heavily in critical MD - is hurting Steele's (R) bid for Senate in the state. The consensus is that it's poorly timed and somewhat tasteless. Our take on it is move on to more pressing issues like a closer examination of candidate platforms:

When a black conservative group ran a radio ad proclaiming that the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was a Republican, reaction was swift. "We've gotten some e-mails and telephone calls filled with vitriol," said Frances Rice, chairman of the National Black Republican Association. "They've called me Aunt Jemima, a sellout, a traitor to my race."

In the battle for the black electorate, liberals, who make up the overwhelming majority of black voters, have long disagreed with conservatives over ideology, public policy and economic strategies to better the lives of African Americans. But when conservatives placed the civil rights movement in a Republican context, black liberals said, they crossed a line.