12/03/00 8:45 a.m.
Victimhood Out of Victory
Jesse, Kweisi & Co. undercut their own remarkable efforts.

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

t's easy to laugh, but actually it's pretty sad. Much of the crux of the Democrats argument on the need for the "will of the people" to be recognized in the outcome of the Florida election depends on the party portraying its own supporters as practically senile (senior citizens) or ignorant (African Americans).

In the case of the senior citizens of Palm Beach County, this is put forth in a way to make the public feel sorry for individuals who allegedly accidentally voted for Pat Buchanan instead of Al Gore. The Florida supreme court Friday rejected a plea to allow the county to revote because of the notorious butterfly ballots that apparently created this confusion. But the instinct here is to feel sorry for elderly Americans who have made an innocent mistake.

But, the other side of the story is more troubling. The African American leadership — including Jesse Jackson's Rainbow/PUSH Coalition and the NAACP under Kweisi Mfume — decry the 21,000 ballots disqualified in Duval County, largely because they were accidentally double-punched. Thursday, they met with Attorney General Janet Reno describing a litany of alleged efforts focused on blocking blacks in Florida from voting. While the leadership cries about "disenfranchisement," perhaps Jackson and company should wonder about how their own actions and voices actually serve to undercut what should be a rather impressive moment in black political empowerment.

The ongoing controversy in Florida has frozen somewhat the usually exhaustive post-mortem articles on what happened in the election. Republicans would be foolish to ignore, for example, the rather lethal combination posed by organized black leadership and the unions. It now seems that 1998, when this duo first came together and helped produce Democrat gains in the House, was just a dry run. Al Gore telegraphed what his strategy would be with his hiring of Donna Brazile as his campaign manager. Brazile oversaw the black turnout two years ago. Her quotes to the press get her in trouble and enrage conservatives. Yet in terms of effectiveness as a political operative, Brazile may be the black female equivalent of Lee Atwater.

The '98 black turnout in certain select states was such an anomaly that Republicans didn't think it could possibly happen again. Wrong. Apparently, the turnout in Florida was a record. And this is where the black leadership finds itself in an awkward position. This is a moment when the leadership should be exulting in triumph — it got 90 percent of the black community to vote for Al Gore. They voted for Al Gore, even though George W. Bush went out of his way to court minority voters. Bush addressed the NAACP's annual convention and got the back of the organization's hand in the form of hard-edged ads practically accusing him of approving of James Byrd's murder.

It was once said that a yellow dog with the sign "Democrat" on it would get a Southerners vote before a live Republican did. Well African Americans have now become the new "Yellow Dog" Democrats. But it's clear that this leadership has betrayed its own constituency. I don't mean this in the sense of lying about the GOP's agenda. That happens. All's relatively fair in love and politics. The tactics are deplorable, but the results are disturbingly effective. Talk to any campaign manager about getting 90 percent of a key segment of your base voting for your candidate, and see if he complains over how it was accomplished. It's an approach that Republicans will have to figure out how to respond to in future elections.

However, how is it that the NAACP would take such pains to get blacks registered, terrify them into getting to the polls, but fail to inform these new voters exactly how the ballots were designed? The result is that, according to Sunday's Washington Post, "In 21 of Florida's 67 counties, the ratio of disqualified votes to total votes cast was more than 6 percent. Those with the largest numbers of both disqualified and double votes were largely Democratic and black areas. Double votes are not reviewed in hand recounts, because there is no way to discern a voter's intent."

Note that this refers to "overcount" ballots that are immediately disqualified and can't be included in any recount (as the "undercount" ballots that showed no preference for president could be included). Thus, the fruit of the NAACP's "lack of education" is likely losing Florida to George W. Bush. The irony is remarkable. Just as the outcome in Florida would not be debated if Al Gore carried his home state, had their been more diligence from the NAACP, Gore would likely have won Florida by the margin of at least a few thousand black votes.

It is, of course, impossible for the black leadership to dwell on their failure to educate their constituency. Thus, they are forced to raise allegations of voter intimidation. Surprisingly, Janet Reno has shown reticence to jump into this particular swamp — but, hey, it's still early. Saddest of all is that this story is a perfect morality tale for the Democrat black leadership's general political agenda: Ignore the most important issue — educating the citizen — and then complain about how your constituency has been "victimized" by an unfair system. Such a strategy causes the community to look helpless and ignorant, while also undercutting the legitimate power that this leadership has actually demonstrated.