of all of that legislation, acting on Johnson's direct instruction. They maneuvered it to the floor, they bartered the votes, they engineered the victory. You do know that Robert Caro has written magnificently, for volume after volume, on this, the greatest moral victory and crowning achievement of Lyndon Johnson's lifetime? You do know that every Republican politician of the ensuing half century with national ambitions has used Johnson's triumph and the shadow of racial politics both as wedges to draw white votes and Southern states to their cause. You do know the name Lee Atwater? Karl Rove? Willie Horton? You've heard of welfare queens with Cadillacs? And meanwhile I've yet to encounter a Tea Party politician advocating for women's reproductive rights, for rational and liberalized immigration policies, for increased access of all voters to the polls for all citizens, regardless of race, for gay marriage and equal rights for homosexuals. Show me some. Show me the wide, inclusive ideological spectrum that has found a place in the Tea Party. And then I'll be less inclined to be so unequivocally opposed to the entire premise of that political enterprise. If you are trying to use the existence of Dixiecrats prior to the Civil Rights victory as evidence that there are bad Democrats as well as worthy ones, I'm not sure you've done much other than assert for the premise of my original essay. Lyndon Johnson repudiated the Dixiecrats, knowing it would cost his party power and votes for the longterm. He