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What do many Republicans, the spokesmen for NRA and Tavis Smiley have in common? Once they start down a road, no matter how dangerous or ridiculously wrong it is, they won’t turn back.

Tavis’s commentary on CBS News Sunday Morning was both, a tribute to his hero Dr. King and a slam at his nemesis President Barack Obama. This is nothing new. In the words of the great Sunshine Anderson, “Heard it All Before.” Except this time, he took it a bit further.

And I quote: “The president wants to channel King so badly that he’s decided to use Dr. King’s Bible at the inauguration ceremony tomorrow.

Obama is a politician, and a pretty good one, but King was a prophet. And while I can appreciate the president’s fascination with King’s legacy of unarmed truth and unconditional love, I’m feeling some sort of way about King being used symbolically for public pomp and circumstance, but disregarded substantively when it comes to public policy.”

What? The President has a fascination with Dr. King’s legacy? Come on, Tavis.

I believe that Tavis is the one fascinated with Dr. King’s legacy, but more importantly Tavis is fascinated with his own legacy, and that’s not good. He wants more than anything to be remembered the way Dr. King was, and to some how make that kind of mark on the world.

Dr. King wasn’t concerned about how he would be remembered, he was concerned with doing good and doing right. In the end, that made him great. Tavis has done a lot of good things but his obsession with becoming great is destroying him. The whole issue with the inscription on the King Memorial illustrates the differences between Tavis and Dr. King. Days before he was killed, believing that death was imminent, Dr. King dealt with it publicly in his Drum Major speech.

Dr. King knew good things would be said about him in death and he was humbled at the idea of it. Tavis is afraid of what will be said about him and it’s driving him crazy. He points out on the day of President Obama’s swearing in that the President is not the fulfillment of Dr.King’s dream, but maybe a good down payment. I wonder what that makes Tavis, and sadly, so does he.