Coming off my post a few days back on the beating our civil rights took in the form of DC voting suffrage, I thought I’d point you folks to an impassioned article (No longer under lock and key by the NYT “Times Select” vault, hooray!) by the always fiery Bob Herbert.

Herbert points out something most of us genuinely know to be true… that the Republican party espouses policies of racism.

The G.O.P. has spent the last 40 years insulting, disenfranchising and otherwise stomping on the interests of black Americans. Last week, the residents of Washington, D.C., with its majority black population, came remarkably close to realizing a goal they have sought for decades — a voting member of Congress to represent them.

Desecrating the dream of equal voting rights for the citizens of a majority black city, bah, that’s worn bag. How about consciously avoiding a debate centered around minority issues? Ooooh, now that’s a spicy new wrinkle. Candidates Thompson, Giuliani, Romney, and McCain (your veritable GOP frontrunners) have all backed out of the debate to be televised on PBS. A debate that has been on the schedule for over a year.

Big bad Bob goes on to give a few more examples, including Karl Rove’s mentor’s racist explanation of the “Southern Strategy,” but more than enough has been “blogoviated” about the article. (Here, here, and here for starters) Andrew, my compatriot here at S&P, asked me earlier what would happen if a thousand people emailed this article to the RNC, NRSC, and NRCC and asked the question “So, are you really racist? If you don’t think so, then why not discuss issues important to minorities? Why not find a way to get voting representation for over 600,000 disenfranchised people, well over 60% of whom are black? ”

I don’t know. What would happen?

Republican Party General Chairman Senator Mel Martinez and Mike Duncan, Chairman, Republican National Committee

Representative Tom Cole, Chairman, National Republican Congressional Committee

Senator John Ensign, Chairman, National Republican Senatorial Committe

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Oh, and just so you know, Andrew Sullivan doesn’t care because he’s bored