McCain: 1983 vote against MLK holiday a “mistake”

While part of the mainstream media wasn’t big on mentioning the fact in advance of his address today in Memphis, Sen. John McCain’s track record on commemorating Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination 40 years ago today is a bit complicated.

As a freshman congressman in 1983, he was among a minority of Republicans who voted against honoring King with a federal holiday, explaining later that “it was not necessary to have another federal holiday, that it cost too much money, that other presidents were not recognized.” When a referendum came up in his home state of Arizona, McCain supported it, but the measure was defeated. The twists and turns continue: The state’s governor at the time, a Democrat, then created the holiday through an executive order, which a few years later was rescinded by Republican governor Evan Mecham. McCain supported Mecham’s decision, but later changed his mind. Another referendum on the holiday, which McCain supported, failed in Arizona in 1990; it wasn’t until 1992 that Arizona OK’d a holiday for King. 

In 1999, McCain said he was mistaken in that first vote in 1983, and he reiterated that postion in today’s speech:

We can be slow as well to give greatness its due, a mistake I made myself long ago when I voted against a federal holiday in memory of Dr. King. I was wrong and eventually realized that, in time to give full support for a state holiday in Arizona. We can all be a little late sometimes in doing the right thing, and Dr. King understood this about his fellow Americans.

Rev. Jesse Jackson, who was with King when he died, said of McCain’s admission: “Better late than never.”

Below the jump, video of McCain explaining to reporters that he really didn’t understand who MLK was when he first voted against the holiday in 1983.

Continued: Click “Read More”John McCain talks to reporters about his 1983 Congressional vote against establishing a federal Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday (2:46)