Race-baiting comes back to bite the Democrats

It is rather delicious to see Nancy Pelosi and the House Democrats swinging from their own petard of racism. She is taking the reasonable position that Representative William Jefferson should resign from the Ways and Means Committee. After all, two men have pled guilty to offering him bribes and police found $90,000 gathering ice in his freezer. They reportedly have lots of other evidence against him. Perhaps a man with those legal woes should not be sitting on the committee that is responsible for taxes. But the man hasn't yet been indicted and swears he's innocent. The Democratic House leaders want him to resign so they can have a clear field to label the GOP as the only ones tinged with corruption.

However, Jefferson is black and the Congressional Black Caucus has rallied to his support. They are pushing back against Pelosi and her gang and crying racism.

Rep. Mel Watt, D-N.C., chairman of the Black Caucus, said forcing Jefferson to step aside could cost the Democrats the support of African Americans, one of their key constituencies.

Referring to black voters, Watt said, "You've got a whole base of people out there who believe that the Democratic Party takes them for granted already."

If action to strip Jefferson of his committee seat is taken only against someone who "is a black member of Congress, then our community will legitimately ask, 'What in the world are you doing?' " Watt said.

The Democrats have cried racism every time the Republicans did anything that could possibly be conceived as touching on race so that now it seems a fine justice to see the CBC play the race card against them.

However, the CBC is undermining their own moral authority when they go to the mattresses to support a guy with such questionable ethics. Do they really think that black voters across the country are going to care that the Democrats deprived this guy of his seat on the Ways and Means Committee? I bet 99 out of 100 black voters either don't know about all this inside baseball, never heard of William Jefferson, or, if they have heard, don't care. They're not going to base their own vote for their own congressman on what is happening to some Louisiana politician they've barely heard of. So, it's not a question of how the black voters are going to react in the election.

It's a question of how black leaders are going to react. Are they going to withhold their support from the Democrats over this? Is this going to be the tipping point when black leaders decide that they're not getting their deserved props from the Democrats? Is this the issue they want to flex their muscles over? If they think that the Democrats have taken them for granted, why don't they press on some more critical issues than about this guy's seat on a committee in Congress?

I just don't think that, when it comes down to it, the black leaders who have loyally done all they could for decades to elect Democrats and oppose Republicans are going to decide suddenly that they are going to sit this election out, especially when it means that there is a chance, slim, but a chance, for the Democrats to retake the House. The CBC want to be a part of that and to be able to take credit for it. I think they're just roughing Nancy Pelosi up a bit over this but they'll all come to some accommodation, maybe get some other concessions, and move on to their common goal of winning elections.

I just find it rather delicious for all those sanctimonious House Democrats having to deny the charge of racism because they don't want Jefferson's ethical woes interfering with their campaign slogans against the Republicans. Let's see how they like the race card being played against them just because they took a stand against a corrupt black politician.