Name That Party!

You may have already seen that Anonymous posted the names of over 1,000 alleged members of the Ku Klux Klan.

But this USA Today story caught my eye for what it didn’t say in its coverage of two American politicians:

The data dump began to hit PasteBin, a site used to share and store text and computer code, on Sunday evening.

As of Monday morning there had been four listings, including 57 phone numbers and 23 email addresses. Some also included spouses of the supposed KKK members.

Sen. Dan Coates (R-IN), whose name appeared on one list, Tweeted Monday that he was in no way involved with the KKK.

Of course Coates denied the allegation and of course I believe him. Anybody dumb enough to join the KKK in our modern age is too dumb to get elected to the Senate.

Then there’s an arguably less likely candidate for KKK membership:

The mayor of Lexington, Kentucky says he’s not a member of the Ku Klux Klan. Anonymous postings saying he is are “false, insulting and ridiculous,” Jim Gray said in a statement on Monday.

Gray was responding to the release of names of purported KKK members by someone claiming to be with the hacktivist group Anonymous.

“I have never had any relationship of any kind with the KKK. I am opposed to everything it stands for. I have no idea where this information came from, but wherever it came from, it is wrong,” Gray said.

As an openly gay politician, you’d think Gray would have trouble getting into the meetings, and of course he’d never be caught wearing white after Labor Day.

But while USA Today properly put Coates Republican party affiliation, they failed to mention that Gray is Democrat.

Are we forbidden now from mentioning the Klan and Democrats in the same story together? Will we have to rewrite the history books to leave out Senator Robert Byrd’s (D-KKK) long affiliation with the violent white power group?

Or have we already?