The CBC 6 who betrayed the black consensus on Iraq

Posted by: skepticalbrotha | May 24, 2007

The CBC 6 who betrayed the black consensus on Iraq

Six members of the Congressional Black Caucus have betrayed the black consensus on Iraq and voted tonight to endorse Dubya’s blank check for a continued imperial crusade in Iraq.

They are Rep. Sanford Bishop-D GA, Rep. G.K. Butterfield-D. N.C., Rep. Jim Clyburn -D. S.C., Rep. Kendrick Meek-D-FL, Rep. David Scott-D Ga, Rep. Bennie Thompson D-MS.

Can someone explain this to me? Is there a delusional chorus of Negroes somewhere clamoring for a continuation of a war-without-end in Iraq? Please tell me that there is some organized grassroots effort in the black community in rural Mississippi hollering, weeping and wailing for the Iraq War to continue so that they may continue to be neglected and forgotten by the white power structure.

Please tell me that as we mourn and funeralize the daughter of a King, these six have not chosen to willfully desecrate the King family legacy by voting for this Iraqi attrocity and war crime against humanity. Please tell me that they suffered some kind of mental breakdown that could explain this.

SOMEBODY, ANYBODY, PLEASE HELP ME UNDERSTAND THIS!

Was Dr. King not clear when he wrote, “Before it is too late, we must narrow the gaping chasm between our proclamations of peace and our lowly deeds which precipitate and perpetuate war. We are called upon to look up from the quagmire of miltary programs and defense commitments and read the warnings on history’s signposts.

One day we must come to see that peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek but a means by which we arrive at that goal. We must persue peaceful ends through peaceful means. How much longer must we play at deadly war games before we heed the plaintive pleas of the unnumbered dead and maimed of past wars?”

It is getting to the point where all of the accumulated knowlege and suffering of generations of our people is rendered useless by the persistent and baffling shuffling of a few powerful elected handkerchief heads who refuse to see reason and commonsense. All of these men have been around long enough to have experienced a taste of Uncle Sam’s tyranny.

I am truly undone by this brazen act of contempt. The only question that remains for me is whether or not “the Safe Negro,” Barack Obama, will man-up and vote No.

Posted in Barack Obama, Bennie Thompson, Congressional Black Caucus, David Scott, G.K. Butterfield, George W. Bush, Iraq, James Clyburn, Martin Luther King Jr, Politics, Power Games, Race, Safe Negro Report, Sanford Bishop, U.S. House of Representatives, black consensus, troop surge plan

Responses

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aypS7oI-gB0

By: Denise on May 24, 2007
at 9:44 pm

Rest assured Barack did the right thing! He also framed it as a choice between giving Bush a blank check or giving the soilders a winning strategy. That’s exactly what Dem’s needed to do from the begining; frame the question as not a choice between supporting or not supporting the troops. Moreover he remains consistent on the the most pressing question of the day. Hillary Clinton followed suit as well. Now the real showdown comes in September!

By: dsl on May 24, 2007
at 9:47 pm

All of these were southerners afriad of getting the Cynthia Mckinney treatmeant from the Israel lobby? There ain’t no other explanation I have for it.

By: Ernesto on May 24, 2007
at 10:07 pm

Ernesto,

Ain’t nobody said nothin’ bout’ Israel. Errbody knows how to talk the talk and walk the walk the lobby wants to hear on Israel. Somethin’ different is amiss here and I don’t know what.

By: skepticalbrotha on May 24, 2007
at 10:20 pm

SB:

I’m more surprised at Kendrick Meek. Rest assured, all of them will lose their Consensus/Honor Society status on the next CBC Monitor Report Card.

Meek is the exception - the rest usually grade in the “C-D” category anyway, making them rated as “Underachievers” or “Derelicts”, as in “Underachieving in their performance as a legislator” or “Derelict in their performance as a lawmaker.

If the Whore were still in Congress, he would have been a part of the Dereliction of Duty by these Congresscritters.

I noticed Artur Davis had the brains to stay away from this issue, as did Al Wynn because Wynn has to face Donna Edwards in 2008, and he definately didn’t want to hand her ammunition to wax his ass again in a public debate.

Follow the money, SB…they are all pigs feeding at the corporate trough and can’t get enough of that Halliburton loot, which for them, is only 1% of what Duke Cunningham used to demand for his vote.

By: The Political Junkie on May 24, 2007
at 10:45 pm

Ernesto:

If that was the case, their treatment of Cynthia McKinney when they slung her under the bus, should have protected them.

They’re taking payola from Corporate donors like Halliburton or Kellogg, Brown and Root. Follow the money.

By: The Political Junkie on May 24, 2007
at 10:46 pm

[...] Skeptical Brotha has a list of 6 CBC members who just voted for the blank check with no accountability bill for Iraq. [...]

By: What's Up with the Congressional Black Caucus? « Think On These Things on May 24, 2007
at 11:51 pm

1. They were all men…hmmmm
2. The ONLY one I sorta understand is Clyburn…he’s in leadership. I can hate his vote, but understand it.
3. The rest of them…HELL NO.

Bennie Thompson is officially on my $*#& list. Combine this vote……with this ‘Negro’ derisively referring to the folks who had the ‘nerve’ to challenge the CBC/Faux News Debacle as ‘Liberal Activists’, as if ‘Liberal’ is supposed to be a BAD word in the Black community..

Negro has lost his natural mind.

By: rikyrah on May 25, 2007
at 12:13 am

I’m with PJ… I’m shocked by Kendrick Meeks.

By: Angie on May 25, 2007
at 1:26 am

Obama voted No.

By: rikyrah on May 25, 2007
at 7:02 am

“Obama voted No.”

Rikyrah, we need to get the hell out of Iraq!

(just needed to vent!)

By: Rick on May 25, 2007
at 9:16 am

Obama voted “No” when it was safe to do so, and he was the last to cast his vote at 8:45pm and slipped out before he could be seen or cornered by the press. http://www.TheHill.com

I’m more impressed with Chris Dodd. The man ran ads saying how he was going to vote on this issue before Pelosi and crew slung the Democratic Caucus under the bus, and Russ Feingold called out errbody who got punked on this.

I’m not singing praises for Obama on this. But if he stands his ground and don’t allow the CBC to pressure him into attending that farce of a Presidential Debate with Fox Noise, you will hear me shout from the rooftops and lift up my mojito in celebration in the local Adams Morgan pub (LOL, and I don’t drink).

By: The Political Junkie on May 25, 2007
at 12:39 pm

Then, be sure to drop him an email or a call telling him just that about the Fox Noise Debate. Wouldn’t hurt for him to know that there are those of us out here who know exactly what time it is with Fox Noise

By: rikyrah on May 25, 2007
at 12:54 pm

OT:

http://www.washingtoninformer.com/OPEDronwalters2007May24.html

By: Denise on May 25, 2007
at 5:45 pm

Denise,

I don’t know if I agree with Dr. Walters. Isn’t that our problem already - giving one party 90% of our vote? I just think that everyone should be able to do what they think is best for themselves during this primary season.

I’m not informed, but are the Hispanics rallying around ONE candidate?

By: rikyrah on May 25, 2007
at 6:17 pm

Denise - thanks.

Something that’s never mentioned in these endorsement articles is that each one represents a superdelegate as well.

With respect to the main point of the article, developing a national approach is undermined from the get-go by the IL-NC-NY regional split.

By: dblhelix on May 25, 2007
at 6:18 pm

The political junkie has it nailed.

Those guys cant either cannot AFFORD to Vote against the funding of the troops or they just dont WANT to.

Dollars to donuts all those guys are in heavy military districts.

and live in perpetual fear of an ACTUAL campaign, most of THOSE guys WALK to re-election…not run.

By: DaveyWayne on May 25, 2007
at 7:10 pm

You all really shouldn’t get too worked up about this. The war will end in September, and just because a few members of the CBC voted with the President doesn’t make them traitors to the cause. Members frequently have to cast votes they don’t like just to return to Congress. And Seniority matter A LOT. Launching a primary against any of these people will only hurt African-Americans in the long run if new freshmen replace them. I realize it’s not a PURE vote, but in the reality based community, it’s better to have more power than less.

The anti-war community has already succeeded in backing Bush into a corner, they just gave him enough wiggle room to make sure that HE ends the war and not the Democrats. If Dems end the War, it will likely be disastrous for the Democratic party (much like Viet Nam). Congressional Republican leaders area already going to force Bush to end the War in September if the Iraqis don’t invite us to leave before then.

As an aside I really wish Charlie Rangel (who is and will remain a great Chairman of his Committee and honorably served both as a soldier and prosecutor) would qualify his statements that the Army is disproportiontately African-American. Unfortunately, this is misleading; actual U.S. combat troops are disproportionately white (over 70%) and overwhelmingly Southern (though I don’t mind if a bunch of those bigotted assholes get their asses shot off anwhere in the world ).

African-American and other minority soldiers WISELY take advantage of opportunities in the armed forces to learn job skills that will translate into real world skills when they leave.

Not noting this fact is intellectually dishonest and misleading to the American people when discussing this issue.

By: Uneven Steven on May 25, 2007
at 7:19 pm

Uneven Steven: African-American and other minority soldiers WISELY take advantage of opportunities in the armed forces to learn job skills that will translate into real world skills when they leave.

To expand on this — a disproportionate number of women Army enlistees are African American, hence a concentration in support specialties.

By: dblhelix on May 25, 2007
at 9:20 pm

The CBC Is Officially Dead

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/5/25/134147/185

By: rikyrah on May 26, 2007
at 12:43 am

rikyrah,

I would hafta agree with the sistah that indeed, the CBC is officially dead. Her reasoning is sound and her points valid. Ain’t no way in the world that what Mel Watt’s “leadership” of the Caucus constituted anything more than prostrate capitulation.

By: skepticalbrotha on May 26, 2007
at 7:29 am

“Dollars to donuts all those guys are in heavy military districts.”

Why is this a reason to prolong a war that is pretty much ruining the military?

By: Ernesto on May 26, 2007
at 10:05 am

Ernesto,

I am sorry, but I see no reason these Negroes are buying into the corrosive conventional wisdom claptrap of funding the troops. It makes absolutely no sense. I am also not buying the,”begininng of the end” bull from Pelosi and Co. This capitulation is a betrayal of the constituency that gave democrats the Congress. Period.

By: skepticalbrotha on May 26, 2007
at 10:34 am

The reason they all voted for this is due to the riders that were attached to it (thanks to that idiot David Obey from Wisconsin).

Obey, who negotiated this (non-) compromise allowed riders to be attached that deal with FEMA, Katrina relief and the minimum wage. All popular Democratic issues, to be sure. But especially so for people in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida and Mississippi.

If you don’t want your people to vote for a bill, you DON’T attach stuff like that to it.

Obey is a Democratic poser and we’ve tried many times to rid ourselves of his crap. We will continue to do so until we’re finally successful. Until then, we just have to put up with his BS.

I apologize on behalf of all Wisconsin residents.

By: RandyBastard on May 26, 2007
at 10:55 am

It;s not that hard to understand. There are always quislings who will put their own personal comfort over their alliance, commitment and duty to the people they represent. They are paid handsomely for it. Some Jews collaborated with the Nazis for the same reasons. Vicente Fox, expresident of Mexico and Bush buddy is another example. There is really nothing unusual about this. They prefer money to ethics and morals.

By: ANTONIO on May 26, 2007
at 12:59 pm

because so many of those “troops” are African American?

And despite progressives’ blindness to this inconvenient fact when they say “The Country Is With Is!”, polls show that Americans simply don’t want Congress to try to force a withdrawal by withholding any funding billl at all.. And that’s what sending the same bill over and over for the same Bush veto would do (even if Pelosi could keep her coalition together, which she couldn’t) just as much as not sending any budget bill at all would do.

It’s odd to see bloggers who’ve been calling (and with such justification) Bush the most incompetent and/or evil President in history so carelessly dismiss Americans’ concerns about a forced withdrawal done by a President they no longer trust with “that’s just a BS talking piont that they’d run out of bullets” and that’s an end to discussion. That’s not very convincing outside your own circles.

but THANKS for the specific list of the “No” votes. I really appreciate it, it’s good to hear these specifics. None of them are my Congressmen, but I urge readers in their districts to make the effort to contact them and make sure they know about your own continued opposition to a U.S.-led military occupation of Iraq.

By: jennifer poole on May 26, 2007
at 2:13 pm

[...] Six House Negroes! The CBC 6 who betrayed the black consensus on Iraq [...]

By: Six House Negroes! « A Moveable Feast on May 26, 2007
at 5:34 pm

Good post. It’s a pity we white people do not hold white representatives accountable in the same way. For such atrocious “representation”, they certainly should be. I know I’ve called my rep and Mrs. Feinstein, but really, often, I see blacks and Latinos holding “their” folks accountable. Really, we white people are the ones responsible for W in the White House, we should be more vigilant.

By: TC on May 26, 2007
at 7:40 pm

Thank you RandyB for the info about the pork spending riders. That goes a long way towards explaining those 6 votes. Congress remains the ultimate den of sleazy cowards.

By: Ernesto on May 26, 2007
at 9:48 pm

SB,

How many of these members have military bases or large percentage of military families in their districts? As mind-boggling as it is, Bush still enjoys wide-spread support from the aforementioned. Hell, I don’t know if it’s misguided patriotism or shell shock, but they voted over-whelmingly for him in the last election and there is no poll that I’ve seen which indicates that support has measurably declined.

Moving forward, as flooring as the capitulation by the Democrats may be to some, I’m more floored at the revelation that none of the current or former Senators running for the Democratic nomination bothered to read the 90-page Senate Intelligence Report beforehand. I can NOT believe that an overnight assignment could have prevented this war. Biden, Clinton, Dodd and Edwards didn’t read it because they knew there was sufficient evidence to undermine Bush’s case for war, and they didn’t want to risk looking soft on terrorism when they eventually ran for President. So, they voted yes in “ignorance” and put the “I didn’t know” card in their back pockets to play, as they have, if the war went badly. I can NOT believe that more of the media and anti-war groups are willing to overlook this.

By: NMP on May 29, 2007
at 12:12 pm

“Moving forward, as flooring as the capitulation by the Democrats may be to some, I’m more floored at the revelation that none of the current or former Senators running for the Democratic nomination bothered to read the 90-page Senate Intelligence Report beforehand. I can NOT believe that an overnight assignment could have prevented this war. Biden, Clinton, Dodd and Edwards didn’t read it because they knew there was sufficient evidence to undermine Bush’s case for war, and they didn’t want to risk looking soft on terrorism when they eventually ran for President. So, they voted yes in “ignorance” and put the “I didn’t know” card in their back pockets to play, as they have, if the war went badly. I can NOT believe that more of the media and anti-war groups are willing to overlook this.” NMP

My sister, I absolutely agree with you.

By: Angie on May 29, 2007
at 1:09 pm

Skeptical Brotha

The CBC 6 who betrayed the black consensus on Iraq

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