CBC Denial Watch: When Will It Crack?

Yesterday you may recall that the CBC met to discuss whether or not to move forward with the presidential debate with Fox News despite all three frontrunners withdrawing to protest Fox's hostile, slanted news coverage of Democrats. Without Obama, Edwards and Clinton and without the sanction of the DNC, you would think finding a graceful exit from an embarrassing situation would be a high priority.

Yet I have it on good authority that despite reasonable, dissenting voices, the CBC will press on with the event. The CBC's current plan of action is to try to convince the top three presidential candidates to attend the debate. They will send the candidates a letter urging them to participate, saying that this is not a Fox debate, that it's a CBC Institute debate, while also implying that the CBC debate is their only opportunity to speak to black voters and black interests.

So the plan is to pressure the candidates, dissemble and lie. Who do they think they are fooling? The debate would be hosted on Fox News as a co-branded affair from the Fox Theater in Detroit. So Fox is involved. Furthermore, this is not the candidates only chance to speak to black folks. Tavis Smiley has a Democratic debate lined up on PBS that happens to be DNC-approved.

The frontrunners walked away for good reason and are not likely to turn back. Why should they? What on earth would they gain? Fox News' audience share is declining:

Viewership over the first eight months of the year was down 5 percent compared to 2005, with a steeper 13 percent decline in prime-time, according to Nielsen Media Research. For 12 straight months, Fox's prime-time audience has been smaller than the year before.

This is just pride, arrogance and denial of defeat on the part of Bennie Thompson and Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick. They think there's been some kind of misunderstanding. They think they can use their personal relationships to guilt trip the candidates into ignoring the blogs and the media. They're wrong. It will be painful to watch them hit the mat again -- this time it was a TKO. Now they are lining up for another crushing blow and full-on knockout.

The CBC has a rather sordid history with News Corp helping them lobby on Capitol Hill while receiving cash for the CBC Foundation. The CBC is not likely to benefit from negative media exposure on this issue.

If you're inclined to do so, please call Rep. Kilpatrick at (202) 225-2261, especially if you are from the Detroit area. She's your representative. Please also give Rep. Thompson a call at (202) 225-5876, especially if you are from Jackson or Greenville, Mississippi and urge both of them to walk away from this while they can still hold their heads up high. It's time to move on. In the meantime, let's start the official CBC DenialWatch.

In the News: CBC Struggles to Regain Lost Dignity

So I was reading this Hill article on the Congressional Black Caucus Institute debate on the Fox News Network and I have to say I was astonished to see that the CBC is still split. I don't know all the players, but I am willing to bet that the same people who thought it was a bad idea to begin with now recommend pulling out now that first Edwards, then Obama and then Clinton withdrew on principle. A voice of reason:

“I’ve had conversations with my colleagues and we’re probably going to have further discussions,” caucus member Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.) said. “My point is that the major candidates aren’t going to be there, and that’s no real debate.
“I think there should be consultation with the candidates and consultation among ourselves,” he said. “If the candidates choose not to participate, we probably need to rethink what we’re doing.”

There is no way to salvage this debate. So the CBC has been humbled and humiliated. So what? They are just lucky it never really crossed over big-time into the mainstream media. Yet. Do they really want to compound the humiliation by hosting a debate with second-tier candidates that no one watches? Who cares if it's the largest cable news network? If a debate falls in an empty forest, does anyone hear it?

Who cares if Fox was there for the CBC back in 2004 when no one else was? Has anyone questioned the motives behind that move on Fox's part? Who was Faux News really boosting -- and whom do they attack over and over? Here's a couple more sensible opinions:

“I do think that the CBC should seriously consider pulling out because Fox almost always chooses the opposite position of our caucus and members are continuously badmouthed on there,” a member of the black caucus, Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.), said. “That would be my position inside the caucus. However, I in the final analysis would support the caucus’s decision.”

Another caucus member, Rep. Diane Watson (D-Calif.), said: “Fox News brings the right-wing side of the news, and there’s no sense in participating in that kind of game-playing.

“We’re very serious about taking the administration in November and I wouldn’t trust getting an accurate and true portrayal of our views on the issues if Fox News is coordinating it,” she said in reference to Democratic hopes of taking back the White House in 2008.

The CBC needs to check itself and get real. This debate is over. They've got a few choices as I see it:

1) Proceed with the debate and suffer humiliation on a larger scale as the controversy and frontrunners' failure to appear at the debate becomes broadcast to the nation. Today show: Here We Come!
2) Wait for Fox to back out of the debate, eliminating the need for an awkward discussion with a major CBC Foundation donor
3) Take the stand that the frontrunners have taken and withdraw on principled grounds. Turn defeat into victory.

I really hope the CBCI chooses Door #3. I really don't want to see Rep. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick (D-MI) (who happens to chair the CBC) on Good Morning America explaining why the top tier candidates have refused to participate in the debate (but are participating in Tavis Smiley's debate) and why they are having the debate anyway. There are too many other issues where her voice is needed on behalf of African-Americans. We certainly don't need her shuckin', jivin' and apologizin' for racist Fox News.

Tom Tancredo -- Killing the Congressional Black Caucus?

This is a novel approach notable for its daring. You had to figure that the new power and unity of the Congressional Black Caucus with one member as a presidential candidate and a few others as committee chairs has to be scary. This is a direct, racist attack that I am willing to bet that more wingnuts will be pushing as the CBC begins to assert their growing power.

Tancredo:

"It is utterly hypocritical for Congress to extol the virtues of a colorblind society while officially sanctioning caucuses that are based solely on race," said the Colorado Republican, who is most widely known as a vocal critic of illegal immigration.

Any black person will tell you -- this society ain't color-blind just yet. I hope the CBC members led by Rep. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick (a good progressive) will get aggressive out there with the message that the CBC is too black and too strong to get snowed under by a wannabe like Tancredo. The type of misdirected energy in defense of smooth criminal Dollar Bill Jefferson -- getting all up in Nancy Pelosi's face about his congressional privileges -- needs to be re-focused on fending off GOP playahate.

As for whites and non-blacks wanting to join the Congressional Black Caucus, I agree with the BlackProf -- how can we demand inclusion when we practice exclusion? Why give our enemies ammunition in the public space? Whites on the left need blacks. But you know what -- we need their support too. The CBC ultimately will need to find a way to open the door to folks who can help move the agenda forward for African-Americans. The Republican version of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus has twice as many "associate" non-Hispanic members than they do actual Hispanics. How powerful would it look to dwarf that with a strong associate membership of folks who say that, despite not being black, that they want to stand with African-Americans for a country that serves all its people equally?

I'm just sayin'...

State of the Union Address - State of Katrina?

So amazingly, there was no mention in George Bush's speech about the largest humanitarian disaster the United States has ever seen. None of the dusky heroes waving from the gallery were Katrina-related, although Dikembe and Wesley's stories are admirable. There were no updates on assistance. No commitments to re-build the region. Just nothing.

Maybe if we ignore the Gulf region, they'll go away and stop asking for help. Maybe people will stop caring. I don't think that's true though. Both Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick (D) and Susan Collins (R) -- powerful Congressional women -- has looks of pure, barely disguised hatred/disgust smoking from their faces during the speech.

I think politicians who think that the American people have forgotten about Katrina are deluding themselves. The people of Houston and New Orleans certainly haven't forgotten. The compassion and commitment to support those impacted by Katrina, both inside and outside the black community is there. But the leadership, save for John Edwards and his announcement from the region, is not. Why is that?

Racial Politics This Week -- A Roundup

Cross-posted at MyDD

Ain't I a Woman?

-- Sojourner Truth

Welcome to Sista Scola in what is becoming Woman Weekend at MyDD. I am Woman, hear me blog. Feel the Femininity. Of course, I too am Jerome Armstrong in reality. It's sort of like Eddie Murphy in the Nutty Professor. I find inspiration for the character of "Jill" in my big butt and bad attitude.

Please Note: This will be my last MyDD post until 2007. In the meantime, I lift a frosty glass of soy egg nog (or as I like to call it -- "snog") to you and wish you the happiest of possible holidays.

Lead Story --

The Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) rounds up Hispanic workers using racial profiling in TX leaving at least 400 child citizens without parents. Just in time for Feliz Navidad.