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Today, Human Events posted a new interview with "the most powerful man in Republican politics," Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour. Asked directly about Nixon's "southern strategy," Barbour was cagey, saying, "There's no question that in the fifties and probably the sixties there was some of that." He claimed, however, that "the people who led the change of parties" were part of a younger generation who "went to integrated schools" and recognized that segregation was "indefensible."

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BARBOUR: There's no question that in the fifties and probably the sixties there was some of that. At the same time, the people who led the change of parties in the South, just as I mentioned earlier, was my generation. My generation who went to integrated schools — I went to integrated college, um, never thought twice about it. And it was the old Democrats who had fought for segregation so hard. By my time, people realized that was the past, it was indefensible, it wasn't gonna be that way any more. So the people who really changed the South from Democrat to Republican was a different generation from those who fought integration. In fact, I can never forget — I mentioned we elected these two young congressman. We were just itching to get a senator, and one of my friend said, "Haley, we're just a few funerals away." You had some of the old crowd that just wasn't going to give up on the Democratic Party because it was the party of the civil war, segregation.

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Barbour's version of history is so grossly distorted that it's tough to decide where to start. This deception is particularly rich coming from Barbour, who has always worn his roots on his sleeve. Barbour says that he was raised an "Eastland Democrat," but fails to mention that Jim Eastland once said that "segregation is not discrimination," but rather "the law of God." Barbour boasts that his generation didn't think about race because "they went to integrated schools," but he enrolled at Ole Miss just a few years after the first black student at the university, James Meredith, whose enrollment led to violent rioting and who was frequently harassed on campus. Barbour completely glosses over the issue of Nixon's "southern strategy," even though he personally worked on the campaign.

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