Apologies, apologies
Hoping to salvage his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination amid growing controversy, Rev. Jesse Jackson apologized Tuesday night on White Entertainment Television for remarks seen as critical of seven-term Democratic Sen. Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia, revered as an icon and elder statesman in his party."My comments were hurtful, needlessly opened old wounds and, for this, I sincerely apologize," said Rev. Jackson in the W.E.T. interview, seen as make-or-break for his candidacy.
Jackson's public relations offensive comes as Senate Democrats push to oust incoming GOP Majority Leader Trent Lott over 'racially tinged' remarks at a recent Centennial birthday tribute for retiring GOP Sen. Strom Thurmond of South Carolina. Sen. Lott said fellow Mississippians were proud of casting their vote for Thurmond in 1948 when he ran for president as a Dixiecrat on a segregationist platform, adding that the country, had he won, would be far better off today.
The comments were seized by Democrats to force Lott from the leadership and hopefully from the Senate altogether, making for a 50-50 split and putting Democrats within striking distance of keeping the gavel next month.
Complicating their effort, the Rev. Jackson, in his third run for the nomination, touched off an uproar among party leaders Saturday over comments alluding to Sen. Byrd's past as Grand Kleagle of the Klu Klux Klan, a group with strong roots in the Democratic Party and that Jackson could ill-afford to alienate. Raising the specter of Sen. Byrd could, moreover, open Democrats up to charges of hypocrisy and undermine the drive to topple Sen. Lott, allowing the Senate to fall under GOP control the next session.
"There are things about Sen. Byrd's past I can't say I'm proud of," Rev. Jackson told FOXNEWS Saturday, initially sparking the furor. Pressed if he meant the Senator's past affiliation with the KKK, cautiously Jackson replied: "Well, some might construe it that way, yes -- but that's for others to judge."
Jackson's comments drew sharp rebuke as "insensitive" from the Democratic Congressional White Caucus and the Yellow Dog Democrat Association for the Advancement of White People, influential Byrd bastions both and whose support is crucial to seeking the nomination.
Burris Dunn, president of the National Association of White Colleges and Universities, and a big Byrd supporter, called Jackson's comments "incredibly stupid" and a "mindboggling tactical blunder," handing ammo to Republicans.
"Here we were," he said, "right at the cusp of victory, our party poised to keep the Senate from falling back into Republican hands and along comes that [expletive deleted] Jackson to gum up the works! Unbelievable! The Republican Party, need I remind you, is the party of Lincoln, the moron who freed the slaves, for crying out loud! How disgusting! I mean, think about it: Peter Jennings, Dan Rather, Tom Brokaw et al have been very careful, throughout the Lott brouhaha, not to muddy the waters with Sen. Byrd, not even hint on his past dealings, but that idiot [expletive deleted] Jackson has to pop his mouth off!"
Jackson, angering party stalwarts further, refused Saturday to say whether he would seek the endorsement of Sen. Byrd, who was Senate Majority Leader for 12 years. For Democratic presidential hopefuls, receiving the 'Byrd blessing', as party insiders call it, has traditionally been essential to winning the Party's nomination. Eschewing the 'Byrd blessing' would be a controversial break with party tradition and could doom Jackson's chances.
But in his mea-culpa interview last night on W.E.T., Jackson tried to make amends with Sen. Byrd, a former KKK recruiter who once vowed never to serve in an integrated military.
"I want to apologize to Sen. Byrd, whom I've offended," said a humble and contrite Rev. Jackson. "My remarks were totally inappropriate and totally offensive."
Asked if, as an act of contrition, he now plans to seek Byrd's endorsement, Jackson was unequivocal: "Of course I will. Why, I consider it an honor and a privilege just being in the same room with Sen. Byrd, the conscious of the Senate."
The Byrd camp remained unconvinced, however.
"Let me put it to you this way," said a top Byrd staffer, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "If I were Jackson, I sure as heck wouldn't want to be alone in the woods anywhere near Sen. Byrd right now. Not that my boss would ever consider endorsing that [expletive deleted] Jackson, but the total lack of respect he's shown for our party's Grand Kleagle is especially galling."
Aids to Sen. Daschle expressed similar sentiments.
"What the heck is the matter with Jackson, anyway?", one top aid fumed. "Why hand Republicans ammunition like that? What is he, stupid, or what? For weeks, every morning, I pick up the phone and remind Katie Curic and other media mouthpieces of ours not to mention Sen. Byrd, our beloved Grand Kleagle, or risk blowing our phony baloney pro-civil rights cover. Why can't Jackson just keep his piehole shut for once?"
A furious Sen. Ernest Fritz Hollings, Democrat of South Carolina, spoke on the record. "Everybody likes to go to Geneva. A lot of Geneva-ing goin' on out there. I used to do it for the Law of the Seas conferences, and you'd find these potentates from down in Africa, you know, rather than eating each other, they'd just come up and get a good square meal in Geneva."
I reminded him that, not long ago, those very words got him in a heap of trouble with African diplomats. "Oh, C'mon," he shot back. "I was only joking! Right now I'm so hopping mad at that [expletive deleted] Jackson, I could [expletive deleted]. We're so, so close to getting the Senate back! We've got the party of Lincoln, that traitor, scurrying for cover -- on the run like never before! Now that [expletive deleted] Jackson shows up and hands Republicans the loaded gun to kill us!"
I asked Democrat staffers what they thought of the media coverage so far.
"Oh, our people at CNN are doing a wonderful job," one aid said effusively. "At CNN, it's all Lott, all the time. 24/7. They're keeping up the pressure on Republicans. Dittos MSNBC -- all Lott, all the time. Even the Weather Channel is talking about Lott. I heard one forecaster say something like, now for the weather in Mississippi, where that Republican racist hatemonger Lott is from, etc."
And the newspapers?
"In the morning, I pick up the Washington Post, and page one -- all devoted to Lott. Turn to page two, and read more about Lott. Turn to page 3, and read yet more about Lott. Lott this, Lott that, heck, you need to turn all the way to page 15 to see anything about Iraq, Saddam, the War on Terror. hehehe, as a Democrat, it sure feels like hog heaven to me."
Then I broke the bad news to him: The GOP, despite weeks of wall-to-wall negative coverage, hasn't been the least bit tarnished by it. Well over half -- 56% -- view the Republican Party favorably in an ABC News/Washington Post poll just out, while 60% believe the GOP is "committed to equal opportunity for minorities."
But that's not the worse news for Democrats: Even a majority of minorities in the survey -- 52% -- see the Republican Party, despite all the propaganda, as "committed to equal opportunity for minorities."
Ouch! For Dems, that's gotta hurt ;^)
Anyway, that's....
My two cents...
"JohnHuang2"
