Governor Blunt's Ironic Choice In Restaurants For MLK Day

Last night, after the Mizzou basketball game, Governor Matt Blunt was spotted having dinner at the Cracker Barrel in Columbia.

That's a rather ironic choice in restaraunts for an MLK Day dinner, given that in 2004, Cracker Barrel was forced to enter into a consent decree with the United States Department of Justice over their racially disciminatory practices.

Here are the DOJ's complaints against Cracker Barrel:

The Justice Department's complaint alleges that Cracker Barrel violated Title II of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by engaging in a pattern or practice of discrimination against African-American customers and prospective customers on the basis of their race or color. Specifically, the complaint alleges that Cracker Barrel:

· allowed white servers to refuse to wait on African-American customers;
· segregated customer seating by race;
· seated white customers before African-American customers who arrived earlier;
· provided inferior service to African-American customers after they were seated; and
· treated African-Americans who complained about the quality of Cracker Barrel's food or service less favorably than white customers who lodged similar complaints.

But that's not the only thing Cracker Barrel has gotten themselves into trouble for. Cracker Barrel is one of four companies that were indicted in Texas for their role in Tom DeLay's money laundering schemes.

Rep. Roy Blunt has taken contributions of more than $53,000 to his political action committee from four of the corporations that were indicted in the Texas scandal (Cracker Barrel, Bacardi USA, Sears, and Williams Co.).

A Texas prosecutor has subpoenaed records relating to Rep. Roy Blunt and the Missouri Republican Party in the Texas case. In addition, he has requested certified copies of Governor Matt Blunt's reports as well.

And Cracker Barrel has been generous to the Blunt family in other ways. In May, the Washington Post reported:

When House Majority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) left Washington last August to attend a friend's funeral in his home state and give a political speech in Ohio, he didn't wait in long security lines for a nonstop commercial flight.

Instead, he hopped aboard a waiting private jet at Dulles International Airport that belongs to the corporation that owns Cracker Barrel stores -- just one of about 30 companies with legislative interests before Congress that have provided this service to Blunt.

So you have to assume that's why Governor Blunt was willing to go ahead and overlook that whole racial discrimination thing, and celebrate MLK Day at Cracker Barrel.