More than half of the Congressional Black Caucus signed a letter on behalf of the CBC Institute pressuring Obama, Edwards and Clinton to participate in their minstrel show, ahem, Democratic debate co-sponsored with Fox. The idea is to put the screws especially on Brother Barack since he’s a CBC member. The others will surely follow.

ColorOfChange.org sent us a letter leaked from a CBC member who thinks this is all crazy. Props to TheSuperSpade and Afro-Netizen who have already written about this. A few of the signatures really surprise me such as Keith Ellison, John Lewis and John Conyers. People who know better. Not to mention Rep. Diane Watson who spoke sense to the Hill and other CBC members just a few weeks ago:

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.

Not sure why she changed her mind, but she shouldn’t be so sure that everyone else will cave so easily. It’s all just pride, arrogance, denial that the CBC got beat. By their own constituents and allies. Their craven and unnecessary kowtowing to a major donor (Fox and News Corp) is just sad.

The CBC’s insistence that there’s no internal debate is sort of precious given that we all know differently.

And let’s not forget that this debate is not sanctioned by the DNC. The CBC claims that somehow the candidates won’t be speaking to the African-American audience. Fox News is on cable. And their audience is shrinking. How many black people do you know who are big fans of Fox? There is a debate already scheduled that really is directed by and for black audiences. It’s Tavis Smiley’s upcoming debate at Howard University. Smiley’s been working with Tom Joyner and BlackAmericaWeb to ask actual black people what they’d like to ask the candidates during the upcoming PBS-hosted debates. A lucky winner will get to attend with a guest and pose the question directly. Oh and that debate is sanctioned by the DNC. And wasn’t there just a Democratic debate in South Carolina at an HBCU co-hosted with MSNBC? Looks like there’s no shortage of debates aimed at the African-American audience.

The CBC is embarrasing. Isn’t there something else that they should focus this much energy on? Like the Iraq War? Or Katrina relief? Hmmm…nah. Let’s all waste a bunch of time over nothin’. Oh and CBC — don’t think I didn’t notice your little comment on rikyrah’s immigration post. Cute. If you really want to get on our good side, you’ll drop this Fox nonsense and stop supporting the people attacking Black America.

Let’s roll tape again, shall we? Over 300,000 views and counting.

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