Making the rounds today are photos from the MLK Day rally in Columbia, S.C. The rally took place at the statehouse, which has a statue of George Washington. And the organizers of the rally hid the statue from view, building a box around it. Apparently, they thought that the sight of Washington was offensive, or would give ralliers offense.

I was reminded of a nutty period in 2002, when liberals pretended that attorney general John Ashcroft was prudishly covering up a nude statue in the Great Hall of Justice. Maureen Dowd, in her singular style, wrote that Ashcroft had forced upon the statue a “blue burqa.” (For those interested in this ancient history, I wrote an article that dealt with the matter, here.)

Ashcroft did not drape the Spirit of Justice in a burqa, much as liberals might have hoped he had. I suspect it is a legend they will always cling to, a fiction that is part of their catechism. But Washington in that box — that is apparently real, and somewhat amazing.