'A Slap in the Face' - Bush meeting with Jackson a slap in the face say Black conservatives

Insight ^ | Aug. 1, 2003 | Kenneth R. Timmerman

[optimistically_conservative]

ping

[Ronin]

I would be pissed, too!

What in the hell is Bush doing pandering to Jesse Jackass?

[Luke Skyfreeper]

Kevin Martin, who as head of Project 21 in Washington had helped convince NASCAR to stop its financial support of Jackson and his groups, thought Bush had gotten the better of Jackson. "If he'd refused to meet Jackson, then all the television networks would have put Jesse on TV to talk about the snub," Martin said. "As it was, Bush came away from this meeting the bigger man. He played Jackson like the fiddle that he was. It was a good political move."

Astute as always.

[q_an_a]

This is the third time this story has been told by different groups of people. The problem is that they forget that President Bush will listen to people and give them a chance to repent, but he won't accept people who lie to his face. Maybe he was reminding JJ that to lie to his face means five more years in the badlands.

[shiva]

Hey! At least Bush showed up at the meeting.

[Bobsat]

As time allows, GWB should give an audience to anybody properly vetted by staff. Otherwise he'd appear to be churlish. He can handle meeting with anybody anytime.

After all, the Pope gave an audience to Bill Clinton....

[Ronin]

Hell, I AM PISSED.

Jackson has been exposed as a hypocrite, a fraud, a race-mongering shakedown artist and an adulterer.

Is he trying to make up for not tap-dancing in front of the NAA(l)CP? This makes no sense at all!

[Frank_Discussion]

Read post #4. Then it may make a little sense.

[The_Republican]

'A Slap in the Face' - Bush meeting with Jackson a slap in the face say Black conservatives

I hope both of those guys forgive him for meeting Jackson.

[Biblebelter]

I guess one might say one man's slap in the face is another's kiss on the a**.

[GeoPie]

Keep your friends close and your enemies closer...

[discostu]

He's also the most recognized political leader of blacks in America. To not meet with him would be terribly stupid. Whether or not you agree with someone has very little to do with whether or not you should give them 15 minutes. Jackson has a very large and clearly defined constituency, that alone earns him the time. When that constituency abandons him then Bush will be free to ignore him, not one minute before.

[Mean Daddy]

Rush has addressed this several times. One of the black conservatives made a stink about it, but later apologized when he found out that Bush was blindsided. Bush was supposed to meet with Cummings, who brought Jackson along as an uninvited guest.

Limbaugh stated that this has happened to him on numerous occasions and you suck it up and be gracious and turn down invites from the people in the future.

Could you imagine the outcry if Bush cancelled because Jackson was there?

[isthisnickcool]

What you said.

[Zack Nguyen]

The president has yet to have a one-on-one meeting with CORE National Chairman Roy Innis or with any other black conservative leaders.

If the President wants to meet with his worst political enemy, that is fine. But at the very least he should spend twice as much time meeting with people who support him.

Bush has the same Republican disorder that so many in Washington have - they are desperately concerned with getting their enemies to love them. They never ever learn - their enemies hate them and always will. Their friends, meanwhile, wonder why they bothered.

[AdamSelene235]

How exactly are our 15 billion dollars in free African healthcare any different from "Reparations".

[bayourod]

You underestimate the President.
You overestimate Jackson.

[optimistically_conservative]

Bush touts 'faith-based' plan to blacks, but Congressional Black Caucus balks

Earlier the Congressional Black Caucus rejected Bush's request for a meeting to discuss his Africa trip. In a letter to Bush, Cummings, the group's chairman, noted the organization "has requested a meeting with the President for over two-and-a-half years and unfortunately each time he has refused." Bush declined to meet with the group before his trip.

BUSH PROMOTES FAITH AT PRAYER BREAKFAST: BIPARTISAN SUPPORT FOR NEW WHITE HOUSE OFFICE

   ¶    The Bush faith-based plan is attracting considerable support throughout the network of black churches across the country. While black ministers and their congregations voted in large numbers for former Vice President Al Gore, some religious right groups such as the Promise Keepers have courted this block, fusing a conservative theological and political message with rhetoric of "racial reconciliation." Mr. Bush has reached out to this potential constituency, including Dallas "megachurch" evangelist T.D. Jakes, who is also a Promise Keeper rally speaker.

   The attitude of many black church leaders was expressed by Bishop Charles E. Blake, pastor of the West Angeles Church of God in Chris in Los Angeles. Blake considers efforts to paint Bush as "illegitimate" in light of the November election dispute to be foolhardy.

   "It would be a horrible mistake for black people to say, as some have said, 'We don't recognize him...' If you refuse to deal with him (Bush), the resources at his disposal will be given to others."

   Rev. Eugene Rivers of the mostly-black Pentecostal Azusa Christian Community church in Boston adds, "Right now, it's really coming down to the black preachers versus the black Democrats."

   Many of these church leaders are turning away from what they describe as the "declining civil rights industry" which emphasized protest and political power, in favor of operating community services. Bush's new faith-based initiative, they say, promises to infuse their churches and neighborhoods with new money, projects and influence.

   Others, like Rev. Floyd Flake who is a former congressman and now heads a New York City "megachurch," may not agree entirely with Blake's approach but believes that the future lay in an accommodation between religious groups and government.

   Bush offers not only funds and renewed vigor for inner-city religious groups, but he often speaks the same conservative social language. Black churches have wrestled with issues such as abortion and gay rights; and many express some of the same conservative views that are voiced on the religious right by groups like the Family Research Council. Many also agree with Bush and the Republican line that a "rivalry" which has supposedly existed between church and state in recent years needs to be addressed, and that, as the president said yesterday at the National Prayer Breakfast, "The days of discriminating against religious institutions simply because they are religious must come to an end."

[Ronin]

Well said, sir!