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Black Caucus Warns Harry Reid
NewsMax ^ | 12-30-04

Posted on 12/30/2004 5:16:08 PM PST by hope

Reprinted from NewsMax.com
Thursday, Dec. 30, 2004 2:55 p.m. EST

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."

"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.

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:

108-108-108-108-108-108-108-108-108-104


TOPICS: Front Page News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: cbc; clarencethomas; harryreid; melwatt; reid
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To: risk; okie01

John Milton, not JSM: http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~rbear/areopagitica.html


61 posted on 12/30/2004 7:38:47 PM PST by risk
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To: hope

"Well F##K me daid!" as the old driller used to say.


62 posted on 12/30/2004 7:42:49 PM PST by x1stcav (Hooahh!)
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To: Soul Seeker
So far, I've witnessed black liberals denied real positions of power such as in the case of Ford denied in favor of Pelosi.

And don't forget the overlooking of Maynard Jackson to head the DNC by Billy Bob Clinton who handpicked Terry McAuliffe. Jackson, for whatever his politics were, had paid his dues and then some. But thanx to Clinton, he got nothing.


63 posted on 12/30/2004 7:47:44 PM PST by rdb3 (Can I join the Pajamahadeen even if I sleep in the nude?)
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To: cyborg

I must have missed this when CBS and NBC and ABC and MSNBC and CNN covered it.


64 posted on 12/30/2004 7:49:32 PM PST by WildTurkey
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To: WildTurkey

me too! LOL


65 posted on 12/30/2004 7:51:08 PM PST by cyborg (http://mentalmumblings.blogspot.com/)
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To: BobL

They are extreme.
She's even more extreme.
She will highlight their insanity and anti-Americanism.
This is their attempt to leap in the middle before she opens her trap.
It will also give them a chance to throw her overboard when/if she does the inevitable by making comments even more outrageous about Dr. Rice and Justice Thomas, cuz she will.


66 posted on 12/30/2004 7:52:39 PM PST by mabelkitty (Blackwell for Governor in 2006!!!)
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To: hope

I was rather surprised to read about this...the CBC coming to the defense of Justice THOMAS, of all people? I thought that many of the CBC's members would consider Thomas to be an "Oreo" & express their embarrassment as well.


67 posted on 12/30/2004 7:52:40 PM PST by libertyman
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To: hope
Methinks the democRAT party is trying to find it's soul.

LOL, good luck.

5.56mm

68 posted on 12/30/2004 7:53:47 PM PST by M Kehoe
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To: CFC__VRWC; rdb3; mhking; Trueblackman; swheats; blackie
"This is about nothing but the CBC telling conservatives to "quit 'cher bitchin'."

I'm unconvinced. The Black Block of the Democratic Party has been kicked around a *LOT* recently, starting with McAuliffe stealing Jackson's (of Atlanta's Democratic Party machine fame) DNC job, Pelosi taking the House Minority Leadership role over Ford, and Donna Brazil being told to go to the back of the Party bus by the lilly-White elites like Shrum who ran Senator Kerry's Presidential campaign into the ground.

I mean, if you are a Black Democrat, you've watched *every* position of power go to some lilly-White racist like Reid. At some point, this much overt pain becomes obvious even to the slowly boiling lobster in the pot.

Are Black Democrats to that point? Probably not...but this letter to Reid is no doubt a sign that Black Democrats are aware that a problem exists.

...And should Black Democrats look further into the matter, they will no doubt ask why White Democratic leaders are *opposing* school choice vouchers/scholarships for inner-city minority children. No doubt they will question why White Democratic leaders are opposed to privatizing Social Security (the only way that Blacks can pass their SS contributions to their heirs, after all, since Black men average living only to age 61, whereas the currently unprivatized SS system only makes SS payments to you starting at age 65).

Black Democrats are *already* asking why White Democratic leaders favor abortion-uber-alle, as most abortions occur in the inner-city, in effect serving as a homegrown self-genocide of an entire race that has now lagged behind Hispanics in total numbers in the U.S.

So this letter from the CBC to Senator Minority Leader Reid may be mere window-dressing as you claim, but I'm unconvinced. In fact, I hold that one alternative to your theory is that the CBC would rather be getting Colin Powell and Condi Rice appointments from a Big Tent rather than continue to be kicked in the teeth by lilly-White liberals who have so far conspired to keep every Black of any note from any major Democratic Party position of power.

69 posted on 12/30/2004 7:55:01 PM PST by Southack (Media Bias means that Castro won't be punished for Cuban war crimes against Black Angolans in Africa)
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To: Brilliant

I'm not so sure about that...I think he made that idiotic remark to tell President Bish to not even THINK about nominating Justice Thomas for the position of being Chief Justice because it might (???) possibly move a few more black votes off the Dims plantation...not for racist reasons.

Now I'm definitely no apoligist for Sen. Reid, but from what I've heard, he seems to be a man of faith & pro-life, on top of that. I may be totally wrong, & if I am, I hope someone will inform me about what the truth really is.


70 posted on 12/30/2004 7:59:30 PM PST by libertyman
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To: mabelkitty

Cynthia McKinney is not just a nut but she and her papa are anti-semitic as all get out.

I heard recently that the reason the Kwiesi Mfume left the NAACP, was because of an argument with Julian Bond about George Bush. I heard that Mfume was willing to "go half-way" so to speak with Bush in trying to help black entrepeneurs and such. Bond did not like that at all because he hates Bush. Mfume tried to make the point that the NAACP is not supposed to be partisan, so listening to and working with Bush and GOP would show non-partisanship.

Then, last week I read that Mfume and Bush were to meet privately. Do ya'll think maybe that Mfume may have had a talk with the CBC after his conversation with Bush, and said that you might want to not become super-glued to the nuts on the liberal side of the Dem party? Maybe, Bush convinced him that he really doesn't where a white sheet around the ranch in Texas.


71 posted on 12/30/2004 8:02:06 PM PST by Txsleuth (Proud to be a Texan)
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To: Zack Nguyen
"If this were a Republican, he'd have been drummed out of leadership for calling a black man stupid indirectly."

Yes, but that's because of the Old Media's double standard. That double standard, however, has given us Social Darwinism, which is to our advantage.

The bias by the news media has so protected the Left for so long that their "herd" has grown weak.

In contrast, the constant attacks and subtle slants of news against conservatives over time has culled the weak from our herd (e.g. Senator Packwood being run out of power for kissing a staffer on her lips, Senator Lott resigning his leadership post for telling a one line joke at a birthday party, etc.) and made us strong.

So to even be competitive, the Left now has to lie. AP reporter Tom Hayes fabricates "Boos" at a Bush rally, NY Times journalist Maureen Dowd fabricates a quote of President Bush, and CBS runs with clearly forged documents.

But because the Left has grown so weak, even these outright fabrications are too little to help them. Our herd has grown so strong that we easily find and debunk such nonsense, and thanks to technology, we debunk the Left much faster than the Left is accustomed to moving.

We've adapted to the new world order of technology. We've changed with the times. We've grown stronger. They've grown weaker.

It's Social Darwinism writ large.

72 posted on 12/30/2004 8:05:05 PM PST by Southack (Media Bias means that Castro won't be punished for Cuban war crimes against Black Angolans in Africa)
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To: Txsleuth

Bump to that theory.

You've made me curious if indeed this could be a result of that meeting. Certainly I wouldn't expect the BCC to come out in favor of Thomas, even in this very mild late response. You may be on to something.

Could even include competition between the BCC and NAACP.

I do wonder if Hispanics overcoming blacks as the majority minority, as well as their willingness to split their vote between parties, may have done more to shake up these coalitions than Condi, Colin or Thomas.

For the first time they have competition. They've regulated themselves even behind the gay community in willingness to split support. This hurts their influence in Washington. If it keeps on in this vein, they will be irrelevent a decade from now.


73 posted on 12/30/2004 8:11:54 PM PST by Soul Seeker
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To: Txsleuth

Mfume strikes me as an opportunist, so it wouldn't shock me.


74 posted on 12/30/2004 8:20:52 PM PST by mabelkitty (Blackwell for Governor in 2006!!!)
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To: risk
The press has to be free. It's really up to us to shake out their lies.

Quite so. I wasn't arguing for control of the media. Though commercial extinction in favor of more reliable sources would be a quite satisfactory outcome.

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.

Yes, Americans have been through this before, haven't we?

I've no doubt it was the internet and talk radio that pulled us through the horrific danger presented by the MSM coupled to CFR.

What was it that made an end run around Yellow Journalism possible, though? I can vaguely recall some paragraphs in a history book that suggested financial over-extension coupled with aggressive competition turned the tide. Capitalism itself is a necessary complement to freedom, it would seem.

I've postulated that, ten years from now, the media landscape won't resemble today's. There will be no such thing as the CBS Evening News, for example. News magazines will be increasingly irrelevant. The major players will be cable TV, radio and the internet. Precise roles will be "to be determined" as new forms appear...and either survive or are discarded. The environment will be very fluid -- but the line between "news" and "commentary" is probably going to be firm and highly visible (as a natural reaction to today's abuses).

"Under the circumstances you describe", my wife has asked, "what happens to the J-Schools and their recent graduates?"

Personally, I doubt that a single J-School is preparing its graduates for such a radically altered environment. Certainly, nobody is intent on turning out the next generation of Matt Drudges. Nor do they have much of a focus on research, investigative reporting, or knowledge of a subject.

As we've seen here on FR, a reporter who doesn't do research and has no effective knowledge of their subject is instantly exposed. The internet simply won't allow for that kind of journalism anymore.

And that is, indeed, "a good thing."

75 posted on 12/30/2004 8:23:09 PM PST by okie01 (The Mainstream Media: IGNORANCE ON PARADE)
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To: Soul Seeker

I am by no means an expert on black people or the way they think any more than any other white woman. Everyone is different, BUT I have to say that I was very surprised this last summer when the black churches in Florida seemed to back Kerry even though he was for partial-birth abortion, his wife was very pro-gay, and he was wishy-washy.

Jesse and Al Sharpton were dragging him to all these churches basically saying that they (the congregants) should overlook these facts, and go against the way they have believed in order to put a Dem in office.

Also, like you said SS, they also see how many Hispanics that have been elected and appointed and nominated for jobs in the Bush Administration. If they don't at least ACT like they are grateful for the black appointees, then Bush will just keep giving them to the other minorities. Remember, he plans on putting Estrada back up again.


76 posted on 12/30/2004 8:43:47 PM PST by Txsleuth (Proud to be a Texan)
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To: Southack

Excellent commentary Southack. I'm just amazed at how Black liberals sit back and take this stuff over and over. Only being called upon by party leaders to be a mouthpiece when it benefits the leadership.

Ford is truly wasting away in a party that's going nowhere.


77 posted on 12/30/2004 8:49:41 PM PST by swheats
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To: hope

Where was the Black Caucus when Colin Powell was called a "house negro" and Condi Rice was likened to "Aunt Jemima"? They must have been out of town because their silence was deafening.


78 posted on 12/30/2004 8:50:43 PM PST by Bonaparte (Of course, it must look like an accident...)
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To: okie01
"As we've seen here on FR, a reporter who doesn't do research and has no effective knowledge of their subject is instantly exposed. The internet simply won't allow for that kind of journalism anymore. And that is, indeed, "a good thing."

Well said.

79 posted on 12/30/2004 8:56:00 PM PST by Southack (Media Bias means that Castro won't be punished for Cuban war crimes against Black Angolans in Africa)
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To: Shisan

We also need to remember the context of other events concurrent to this statement. Just about the same time Condoleeza Rice was being vilely cartooned because she named to succeed the popular Colin Powell. Remember some one said she wasn't qualified and that she was a failure as the NSC advisor?

Additional context was the latino judicial nominee. An outstanding man, filibustered -- Why? Because he would be an example of successful conservative minorities.


80 posted on 12/30/2004 9:12:32 PM PST by gogipper
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