The Tuskegee Airmen, a group of brave black pilots who saved many white air crews' lives during WWII, are receiving the Congressional Gold Medal. Learning of that honor reminded me of an essay I wrote about one particular Tuskegee veteran, who spoke out against the Iraq war in 2003.

UPDATE: An hour after I posted this, Republican Mike Bouchard entered the GOP primary race for the Michigan US Senate nomination. Why is this important? Read on.

Some time ago, conservatives came up with a way of explaining why the modern, post-Southern Strategy GOP has lost black voters to the Democrats.

Black voters are stupid.

As Republican leaders tell it, blacks don't realize that the Democrats take them for granted; they want to keep them poor, they don't elevate them to the highest offices, and generally they want them to stay on the "Liberal plantation". Accordingly, RNC chairman Ken Mehlman has gone around the country asking blacks to join his party, with a promise: 2006 will be the "year of the African American Republican." Said Mehlman:

Already, 7 African American men and women are looking hard at running for statewide office as Republicans:  2 for U.S. Senate in Maryland and Michigan, 2 for governor in Ohio and Pennsylvania; the Treasurer in Ohio, Auditor of Vermont and Supreme Court Justice of Texas are all African American Republicans likely to seek re-election in 2006.

Let's not all make fun of this - the GOP got a black man elected auditor of Vermont, which as Al Sharpton reminded us was more than Howard Dean was ever able to do.

But how's the GOP treating its four new statewide candidates? They're not taking them for granted, like the Democrats do ... right?