The Left Invents Another Fake Scandal: Republican Congressman Quotes KKK Founder On House Floor

He quoted Confederate general Nathan Bedford Forrest, who would later found the KKK.

And what was Forrest quoted on? The need to keep the bloodlines pure? Lynching black folks?

No.

I was a little worried when I saw Dan Riehl's headline. Maybe some cracker did quote a Klannish line in Congress.

But then I saw the quote.

This is absurd: the left is going crazy because one of the most famous aphorisms about war -- "Git thar the fustest with the mostest" -- was quoted.

That line is so famous that even I know it. It's endlessly quoted because it's simplistic, and yet pretty accurate about military strategy in broad outlines. Plus it sounds pretty funny.

But there you go: The left's new scandal.

It says a lot about them that they'd never read or heard this quip before. Their ignorance, as always, is part of their power.

Misquote: Wikipedia says he never actually spoke the famous line:

Forrest is often erroneously quoted as saying his strategy was to "git thar fustest with the mostest," but this quote first appeared in print in a New York Times story in 1917, written to provide colorful comments in reaction to European interest in Civil War generals. Bruce Catton writes, "Do not, under any circumstances whatever, quote Forrest as saying "fustest" and "mostest." He did not say it that way, and nobody who knows anything about him imagines that he did."

I don't know if Wikipedia is right about that. I do know "fustest with the mostest" is one of the most famous quotes about war, up there with Clauswitz' line and "war is hell."

posted by Ace at 03:24 PM

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