Many may not be aware that Senator John McCain voted against making Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Day a federal holiday in 1983. He later apologized for this vote and claimed it was a mistake. However, he has continued to associate himself with known racists.

McCain’s chief South Carolina Spokesman is Richard Quinn, founder and editor in chief of the magazine “Southern Heritage”. According to Salon.com:

Quinn’s articles have called Nelson Mandela a “terrorist” and King a man “whose role in history was to lead his people into a perpetual dependence on the welfare state, a terrible bondage of body and soul.” In another piece, Quinn said of former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke, “What better way to reject politics as usual than to elect a maverick like David Duke?”…

Why does John McCain continue to employ Richard Quinn as a spokesman? While he himself may disavow racism, paying a person like Quinn is a tacit approval of his beliefs.