1/09/01 10:00 a.m.
Black Out
The Democrats defraud their base.

By Robert A. George, an editorial page writer
for the New York Post------------------------------------RAGGEDmail@aol.com

ased on the events of last weekend and the actions of the Congressional Black Caucus, the black community at large should give strong thought about their devout loyalty to the Democratic party.

Saturday, one quarter of the CBC led a feeble House Democrat "protest" of the ratification of the presidential election. Jesse Jackson Jr., Maxine Waters, Alcee Hastings, new CBC chair Eddie Bernice Johnson and others all marched to the House floor podium to register a complaint about "intentional disenfranchisement" of black voters in Florida. In the view of the CBC members, this made the Florida vote illegitimate. Presiding over the combined House-Senate session, Vice President Al Gore did his duty and responded to each attempted protest by noting that the rules demanded that for a protest to be legal, it had to be signed by at least one senator. No senator signed. Waters defiantly said that she didn’t "care" that no senator had signed. Jackson decried that "not one" senator would agree to sign a protest. Finally, with all the demonstrations completed and the Florida vote certified, the CBC members walked out. Not too long afterwards, Gore announced George W. Bush as the 44th president of the United States.

The entire episode was rather pathetic, but it's only upon some reflection that one is forced to see how truly absurd it all was. In fact, one has to ask if the Democratic members were being stupid or just devious. Either answer is disturbing.

Consider, in the election just ratified, black Americans voted for Al Gore in numbers upward of 90 percent. If we take the black House Democrats at their word that nothing is worse than the disenfranchisement of their constituents, how then is it possible that they were not able to convince one — just one — Democrat member of the Senate that the allegations in Florida were worthy of formal protest? What does this say about how the House Democrats are viewed by their Senate colleagues? Not even Ted Kennedy or Tom Harkin or Paul Wellstone — or newly elected Bill Nelson of Florida who, one would presume, benefited from the record black turnout in the Sunshine State? Is this how the Democrats respect their core base?

But the story gets even more interesting. On Sunday's Meet The Press, host Tim Russert asked both Joe Biden (D-DE) and John Kerry (D-MA) if they had been asked to sign a protest by members of the House. Both said that they hadn't been asked, but if they had been, neither would have signed. Kerry, in fact said, "I was struck yesterday…I sort of was taken aback…nobody came to me and asked me to sign it. Had they, I would've had the same reaction as Joe did. Al Gore didn't want anybody to sign it. Al Gore said the election was over. Now, that said, I had enormous — and have enormous respect for what they did yesterday. I was struck by the sincerity, the depth of their feeling, the sense of outrage among many people in this country about what happened. And I think it really does underscore a problem for the president-elect…"

While Kerry's feelings warm the heart, there can only be two conclusions to draw on what occurred on Saturday. For one, Biden and Kerry — two potential Democratic presidential candidates in 2004 — are lying that no House member came to them. Now, it certainly makes sense for Senate Democrats not to want to sign on — especially, considering the new power-sharing agreement with the Senate Republicans. But if that is the case, why don't the House members talk about how the Democrat senators sold out the black community by refusing to stand up for the rights of the most loyal part of the party's base? In other words, why don't the black Democrats in the House appeal to black electoral power?

Of course, the other conclusion is, the House members never asked senators to sign on to the protests in the first place. Walking out of the proceedings helps, to use Sen. Kerry's own line, "underscore a problem for the president-elect." In other words, it appears this was all a charade for the C-SPAN cameras.

But even such actions as these have real consequences. This could have been a moment for the Congressional Black Caucus to demonstrate real power. They could have told Al Gore that — his views aside — the "integrity of the black vote in Florida" was more important than his opinion on whether the election was over. They could have gone to either Biden or Kerry or a southern senator such as Blanche Lambert Lincoln or Mary Landrieu, both up in 2004 and told them that the base would not turn out if they didn't play ball. Now, any protest would eventually have been voted down in the respective chambers. However, black Democrats could have flexed their muscles. Instead, they stage a faux protest — the equivalent of a temper tantrum — in the well of the House and perpetrate a mock walkout. They would rather have their constituents look like victims rather than an effective political base.

The same scenario is playing out with Bill and Hillary Clinton's designating favorite moneyman Terry McAuliffe as the new DNC chairman — even though black Democrats have asked for former Atlanta Mayor Maynard Jackson to get the job. No one would deny what Clinton has done for the party — but does the base get respect or not? If so, how does the party demonstrate that respect?

Contrast this with reports in both the mainstream and conservative press that the conservative base of the Republican party insisted upon having John Ashcroft as attorney general — even though Bush appeared to be leaning toward former Montana Gov. Marc Racicot. Religious conservatives, regardless of whether the mainstream media respects them or not, are still perceived as a group to be feared within the Republican party.

Yes, there does appear to be "disenfranchisement" of the black vote — but it is being done with the willing hands of the black "leadership." By resorting to simple symbolism, refusing to follow their own rhetoric to its logical conclusion and hold white Democrats' feet to the fire, black elected officials permit their own base's electoral power to whither on the vine.