Posted on 12/30/2004 5:16:08 PM PST by hope
Black Caucus Warns Harry Reid The Congressional Black Caucus has told Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., that he crossed the line earlier this month when he called Justice Clarence Thomas "an embarrassment to the Supreme Court." Sen. Reid delivered the personal insult to Thomas during a Dec. 5 interview on NBC's "Meet the Press," after host Tim Russert asked him whether he thought the lone black justice was qualified to head the court. "I think that he has been an embarrassment to the Supreme Court," Reid said, before adding: "I think that his opinions are poorly written. I just don't think that he's done a good job as a Supreme Court justice." With the announcement that the Black Caucus had reprimanded Reid for his attack on Justice Thomas, Rep. Watt becomes the first Democrat to publicly acknowledge that the senator's remarks were racially offensive. Listen to Steve Malzberg and Karen Hunter, 6 to 10 a.m. weekdays, WWRL-AM 1600, simulcast on the Web at wwrl1600.com/mainframe.html.
Editor's note:
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Reprinted from NewsMax.com
Thursday, Dec. 30, 2004 2:55 p.m. EST
"We wrote a letter to Sen. Reid cautioning him about his comments," incoming CBC Chairman Mel Watt, D-N.C., told radio host Steve Malzberg, who was filling in Wednesday on Bill Bennett's "Morning in America" show. "I think all of us ought to focus more on substance and less on stereotypes and caricatures," Watt said.
DNC
108-108-108-108-108-108-108-108-108-104
Let Loose Ann Coulter. (Reid will wish we sic'd the Lions on him instead)
A wink and a nod.
Watt's staff likely huddled with Reid's staff to fine-tune the phrasing and verbiage of this letter.
They have no reason to believe CT is unqualified. What Reid said was not a statement of fact when he said that Thomas was an embarrasment and questioned his intelligence..It was nothing more than a personal attack..
They are in fear of losing their base, pure and simple.""
If this were a Republican, he'd have been drummed out of leadership for calling a black man stupid indirectly.
too little and way too late
You surely don't expect the MSM to ask such questions, do you? Tim Russert made no attempt to follow-up at the time and no Capitol Hill reporter has sought clarification, either. Why? Because it might embarrass Senator Reid, of course.
Meanwhile, we and the conservative talk show hosts and the rest of the extremist right wing won't ever be able to ask the question, as Reid wouldn't dare expose himself to such an audience.
during the tsunami AND just before a holiday when everyone is away and those who are watching the news are not even paying attention.
The "net effect" was to keep blacks on the Democrat plantation. The scumbag Democrats obviously realized that Reid had flubbed big-time and if his flub turned off even a small percentage of the Democrats' black base, then that is serious business. They cannot afford it. Race runs thicker than political party and Reid forgot that.
This letter from Watt (who probably lost a coin toss) was simply an appeasement effort.
month of Sundays "G"
Holidays-family-real life stuff keeping me busy.
After the elections I thought I'd chill a bit. I didn't realize how much the daily news cycles were affecting my attitude.
I didn't need my punching bag as much while away. :) I return only to hear that we're stingy and self-absorbed. That got the motions rolling again.
Other than that life's been good. How bout you?
I'm sure Harry is just quaking, a little letter from Mel WATT telling me to knock it off.
You have to have read the whole statement: the context is important. It gave the impression that while Scalia and Thomas are similar, Scalia has to help Thomas with his spelling because of a certain genetic defect.
If David Duke has said it they would have been on him in a moment like (pardon) white on rice.
LOL Rdb you do have a way with words.
I think you nailed it right there. Racism is so taboo that we can't even criticize it under certain painfully obvious circumstances. This was something other than simple racism, though.
I won't even give Reid the benefit of the doubt. Someone vetted by Congress, appointed by a president, with a long career in serving the country's values for the rule of law has already been through rigid scritiny. Reid is insulting a lot of other people besides CT when he says this, and so it's more than just racism. It says that just because Reid disagress with someone, he can classify that person as intellectually vapid.
How progressive is that?
The MSM serves a master other than the people's interests.
A fact that everybody who is paying attention now seems to recognize.
It leads me to wonder whether the bigger threat to the nation is a.) radical Islamism, b.) the Democrat party or c.) the mainstream media.
Frankly, I'm increasingly inclined toward the latter. Without the ministrations of the MSM, the Democrat party quickly ceases to be a threat outside of, maybe, Berkeley and Yoknapatawpha County. And, without the fog cast by the MSM, the public could more clearly see and identify the threat of radical Islam...and be prepared to deal with it accordingly.
Eliminate either of the other two threats...and you've still got two threats left. But eliminate the MSM...and you're free to run the table.
I wonder if they can comprehend what they have become. I wonder if they could explain "why".
Probably not.
Agreed.
This slam at Thomas occured on the heels of Condi Rice's nomination to SOS, who following was said to be unable to handle the responsibilities of the position, accompanied by racist commentary and cartoons that portrayed an uneducated black woman still on the plantation.
G.W. nominated many people in this time span and the ONLY ones targeted as incompetent were the two black individuals in position to benefit under a Republican administration.
Bottom line is that Dems do not want blacks elevated under Republican administrations because they are afraid it will affect the solid voting block the black community blesses them with each election cycle. They do not want them to advance based on race. They may not be calling for lynching, though Hollings may not be opposed to it, but their attitude to black conservatives is based partly on ideology and partly on race.
I'm not inclined to label people racist easily but in Reed's case if he isn't a racist, he is certainly influenced by prejudice against black conservatives. I'd also be interested to know why a Party said to advance the black population, never made similiar appointments. Actions can state a lot about what someone really believes. So far, I've witnessed black liberals denied real positions of power such as in the case of Ford denied in favor of Pelosi.
I struggle with these questions, too. I was raised to understand our revolution's basis in the Enlightenment. John Stuart Milton's "Areopagitica" elaborates on why the press should never be licensed. In watching the last election unfold, it made me wonder if some sort of rule is at play. A free peole can teeter on the brink of disaster, even when the instruments of information seem to be corrupted, but if the multiplicity of sources of information is protected, the truth often gets through. I had center-liberals telling me they couldn't vote for Kerry because although they had opposed the Vietnam war, and they didn't believe the Swiftboat Vets completely, they felt enough questions had been raised. This is in the face of the CFR muzzlings and all other seemingly coordinated efforts to prevent Americans from getting the truth!
The press has to be free. It's really up to us to shake out their lies. I think our decade is not the first to realize that the fourth estate isn't always an angel of truth. We had Yellow Journalism at the end of the 19th century, for example.
All of this has convinced me that the second amendment is more important than ever -- simply as a deterrent.
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