A Black, Female Conservative: the Dems' worst nightmare?

Peter, I ask you a question:

What better way to promote the advancement of the black community than to give them positive role models to look up to and pattern their behavior after? In my opinion, this is far more powerful than simply handing out entitlements/quotas/etc. Obviously the handouts aren't working. It's time for a more noble path, and kudos to the Bush Administration for making that path possible.

 

...........right.........fiscal probity..........cut taxes and increase spending, create record deficits..............fiscal probity.

 

If that's your philosophy that's fine, I have no problem with that, we just have to agree to disagree.

 

What's interesting about this story is that it wouldn't have happened without Republican Senators looking for a way to interject racism into the debate. The cartoon was initially used in a very cynical way to try and smear certain liberal groups with an unfair charge. I think all of you going on about the racist aspect of this are doing just what they want you to do... get upset about nothing and start arguing so that the divide is widened and can be taken advantage of by unscrupulous politicians. This is nothing but Bread and Circuses.

 

Bush is doing a good job getting minorities into top positions on his cabinet and into the Supreme Court. And while they are positive role models, they do not represent the interests of minorities as a whole. Instead, they are simply "yes men/women" for the president. Honestly, I believe Bush is a good guy, and supports minorities. He's just a little in over his head, ala Mack Brown.

 

Baqui99, your "pooper" posts are classics, but this analogy might be even better. Wow.

If only Mack Brown had an army of spin agents and could avoid ever having press conferences.

 

Baqui99, what forms the basis of your opinion that Powell and Rice do not represent the interests of minorities as a whole? It interests me how you arrived at this false conclusion.

 

What's ironic about this statement is that Mack Brown is a spin agent who seeks to have his star players avoid press conferences.

I don't see what's hard to understand about Baqui's comment. Minorities, as a group, tend to vote Democratic. It's logical to come to the conclusion that conservative minorities don't necessarily represent minorities on the whole.

 

good point. they are yes men/women for cheney and wolfie.

 

Unfortunately, he does have his own Baghdad Bob, his name is Bill Little. After the OU blowout, he claimed this team is in a "rebuilding year."

Bill Little Commentary

B-bob is correct, when he says the main man behind the scenes is Dick Cheney. Only problem is that Cheney's one 16 oz. porterhouse away from cardiac arrest.

False conclusion? Black voters tend to be overwhelmingly liberal as seen by voting trends since the day that they were given the right to vote.

 

Baqui, you are new around the D&D, so I'll cut you some slack. Colin Powell and Condi Rice do not hold the same views towards many issues that impact the black community as do the rest of the Republican party. This alone destroys your argument. To add insult to injury, Colin Powell in his role as Secretary of State and Condi Rice in her role as national security advisor, work to represent the interests of all Americans. It would be beyond ridiculous to assert that Powell and Rice's influence on foreign policy is detrimental to the 'interests of minorities'. Many of the issues that blacks vote exclusively on (AA, welfare, drug policy) are simply out of the scope of Powell and Rice's jobs. The evidence which you have attempted to put forth regarding voting trends just simply does not apply to this argument.

 

Exactly. So Blacks really don't have anyone on the cabinet to promote their positions on such issues. Instead they have nothing more than a couple of token figureheads.

 

I have to agree with the sentiment that the Republican party does little tangibly to affect problems in the black community. The minorities they often tab for positions do not accurately represent the majority opinions in the ethnic/racial groups they come from. They're window dressing for actually addressing problems in that community. The cherry picking of huge Affirmative Action successes like Colin Powell in an administration so strongly against it is just sickening as well. To my knowledge Bush still in 3 years in office has yet to meet with the NAACP, the most significant collective voice for black Americans today. Is he too busy on month long vacations to take an hour to meet with the oldest civil rights group in America? Republicans continue to demonstrate their lack of concern for that community and fortunately most minorities aren't swayed by the window dressing. If Republicans want the vote then they'll have to stop putting bigots in leadership positions and start taking tangible steps to address the problems in that community.

 

By the way, here's an example of Republicans building bridges, Kentucky style...

GOP to put challengers in black voting precincts
Critics call strategy intimidation

By SHELDON S. SHAFER
sshafer@courier-journal.com
The Courier-Journal

Jefferson County Republicans intend to place Election Day challengers at 59 voting precincts in predominantly black neighborhoods, a move that NAACP leaders yesterday called blatant intimidation.

The GOP election workers, most of whom live outside the targeted precincts in western and central Louisville, Portland and Newburg, will be on hand to challenge voters who they suspect aren't eligible.

Jefferson County GOP Chairman Jack Richardson IV said the precincts were chosen at random or because the Republican Party has had trouble finding registered voters in those areas to serve as election workers. The challengers, who will receive the same training as precinct workers, could fill in if needed.

Richardson said the precincts weren't chosen because of their racial makeup or voting patterns. Using challengers is a "legal, proper and permissible" way to ensure that voters are bona fide, he said.

"It is in the best interest of everybody and the responsibility of both parties to protect the ballot integrity," Richardson said. "That is the bottom line."

Kentucky law allows political parties to each place one challenger at any precinct on Election Day to question the credentials of any voter who they have "a reason to believe" isn't legitimate.

Republicans filed a list of the challengers and precincts with the Jefferson County Board of Elections. Democrats have filed no list and say they have no plans to use challengers.

Those challenged must sign an oath swearing they are valid voters. Anyone who refuses won't be allowed to vote unless an election officer decides the challenge is unwarranted, said Walter Cato, a Democrat and one of the four members of the Jefferson County Board of Elections.

Raoul Cunningham, former state NAACP voting-empowerment coordinator, and former state Sen. Georgia Powers called the use of GOP challengers "an assault by voter intimidation and an effort to suppress the African-American community."

Cunningham urged voters in the precincts with challengers to carry identification and to be aware that challengers will be present. Jefferson County's election board policy calls for residents to show picture identification when they sign in to vote.

DEMOCRATS called the Republican challengers an attempt to intimidate black voters in what is expected to be a close race for governor between Ernie Fletcher, a Republican, and Democrat Ben Chandler.

"(They) have only one purpose: to intimidate and suppress votes in the West End and other minority areas," Tim Longmeyer, chairman of the Jefferson County Democratic Party, said during a news conference yesterday attended by County Attorney Irv Maze; Jefferson Commonwealth's Attorney David Stengel; and Louisville Metro Council members Cheri Bryant Hamilton and Mary Woolridge.

Longmeyer said nearly all of the challengers live outside their assigned precincts and many are from the East End, Fairdale and Okolona. He questioned whether those people will know who is voting or whether those voters reside in the precinct.

Fletcher said yesterday that the challengers "shouldn't be any barrier. ... We're doing legally what we can just to make sure that everything is done right in voting, and we invite all members of that community to come out and vote. We want them to vote, and there's absolutely no reason that they shouldn't feel welcome to come out and vote."

Both parties have employed challengers in the past, although county clerk spokeswoman Paula McCraney said the county election board doesn't keep records on challengers or challenged votes.

Democrats said they couldn't remember the last time they used challengers, but Cato said he recalls Democratic challengers in some ward races for alderman as recently as the mid-1990s.

RICHARDSON said Republicans used them in Jefferson County as recently as the 2000 presidential election, although he didn't remember how many challengers were used or where they were stationed.

He said the decision to use challengers this year had nothing to do with previous elections in which Republicans questioned the procedures or voting in some West End precincts. Republicans questioned voting practices in western Louisville in 1995 when Democrat Paul Patton narrowly defeated Republican Larry Forgy for governor.

And last year Republican Mike Czerwonka alleged there were a variety of voting irregularities on Election Day when he lost to Democrat Paul Bather by 695 votes in the 43rd District race. Jefferson election officials said they found no improprieties.

Harry Rothgerber, first assistant to Stengel, said the office used signed oath cards to investigate one or two voter challenges in the early 1990s, but no prosecutions resulted.

Among this year's challengers is Rita Seum, wife of Republican state Sen. Dan Seum. She lives in Fairdale and is assigned to the M-107 precinct near 28th and West Kentucky streets.

"My role is to be there, if anything comes up," she said. She said she plans to monitor the sign-in flow Nov. 4 and report to party officials instances in which improperly registered voters try to cast ballots.

Joann Gammon, who lives on Zorn Avenue, has been assigned to precinct N-110 at Christ the King Church on 44th Street. She said she will be at the voting site to report to party officials any voting irregularities, although she acknowledges she doesn't know anyone in her assigned precinct.

Gladys Bailey, who works at King Solomon Missionary Baptist Church in western Louisville and plans to vote Nov. 4, said she wouldn't be intimidated by challengers, although she worries that older residents might be deterred.

"I don't understand why they (challengers) would be there," she said.

MOST OF the 59 precincts where Republicans plan to assign challengers are heavily Democratic in voter registration.

State law requires each precinct to be staffed by at least three election officers, including at least one Democrat and one Republican. The officers do not have to live in the precinct.

Cato said Republicans traditionally have trouble finding a registered voter who lives in precincts to serve as the election officer at perhaps 20 to 30 polling sites, mostly in western Louisville. The NAACP said yesterday that Republicans have not been able to find GOP officers for at least 33 precincts.

Richardson predicted at least one-third of the challengers would end up serving as election officials. They would be paid $89.56 by the Board of Elections for the 12-hour shift on Nov. 4.

HOW IT WORKS

Precinct challengers can question whether people trying to vote are registered, whether they are who they claim to be or whether they live in the precinct.

Challenged voters must sign an oath swearing they are bona fide before they will receive a ballot. Those who refuse won't be allowed to vote unless an election officer verifies that they meet voting requirements or that the challenge is unwarranted.

The state law says voters can't be challenged indiscriminately and that challengers must have "a reason to believe" a voter's qualifications are questionable.

Voters can help avoid challenges by bringing a picture ID with a current address to the precinct.

 

The perils that exist in raising taxes, cutting spending and thereby choking off economic growth far exceed the perils that exist in financing future growth through temporary leverage. This is a simple financial truism that the liberals repeatedly fail to grasp.

 

You're missing the point, I bet a lot of minorities will tell you they feel that the Clinton Administration helped them out. Who cares if he didn't have a black Secretary of State, if it was easier for minorities to get student loans for example.