Sam Fulwood III: Don’t take the bait: Engaging in arguments about the Confederacy distracts from the issues

  It was awful enough that Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell commemorated April as Confederate History Month—without mentioning slavery.

Sure, that move was historically inaccurate as well as an inflammatory insult. And sure enough, he apologized after the resulting outcry made life miserable for him in the commonwealth and across the nation.

  But what are we to make of Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour? He appeared on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday and volunteered an opinion well after Gov. McDonnell apologized: “To me, it’s a sort of feeling that it’s a nit, that it is not significant, that it’s not a—it’s trying to make a big deal out of something (that) doesn’t amount to diddly.”

  Why, in the name of Jefferson Davis, did a second Republican governor step into the same racially sensitive mess?