Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced on Friday that the police reform legislation that passed in the House almost entirely along party lines the day before would be named for comedian George Kirby.
I have watched some of Kirby’s work on YouTube (at 3:36 in the video found here, he does a spot-on impersonation of John Wayne), but I’m still a little hazy at why Pelosi wants to name a reform bill after him. His death 25 years ago was due to natural causes. And though he did have one brush with the law — he was arrested in 1977 for selling cocaine and heroin to an undercover cop — he lived a mostly righteous life. After serving three and a half years for his crime, he went around to schools lecturing young people about the evils of drugs.
Pelosi’s peculiar invocation of the comedian’s name comes up at around 0:25 in the video that follows.
Will this presidential election be the most important in American history?
Speaker Pelosi talks about how she will ensure that George Floyd’s name is not forgotten seconds before forgetting his name.
— Benny (@bennyjohnson) June 26, 2020
OK, the joke here — which is on Pelosi — is that the person she actually has un mind is George Floyd, a man whose name has been plastered all over the news for the last month. How perfectly rich that in presenting a bill meant to preserve his memory, she’s already forgotten his name. She also forgets the name of the Congressional Black Caucus, pausing uncomfortably long to wait for the cobwebs to clear. (RELATED: Tim Scott received racist voicemails, death threats while working on GOP police reform bill)
Pelosi isn’t the only Democrat to misidentify George Floyd. Here’s Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer, who needs three tries to get the man’s name right.
.@SpeakerPelosi & @chuckschumer, you are doing such an honorable job of honoring Floyd Taylor, I mean, George Taylor, um I mean, George Kirby…… pic.twitter.com/14ilSGrrtH
— Jason Howerton (@jason_howerton) June 26, 2020
Maybe to Democrats, all black names sound alike.
