Old Themes Bubble Up in McCain Attack on Susan Rice

Premeditated GOP Assault on Susan Rice

Demands Rebuke, gets one from Fudge

Susan Rice, the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations and once, if no longer, President Obama’s putative favorite to succeed Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State, is not the most diplomatic person Obama might consider to lead the nation’s corps of diplomats. There is ample evidence for her detractors to argue that she is aggressive and abrasive. She reportedly offered a middle-finger salute to a distinguished colleague during a meeting of senior staff while she was an assistant secretary of state in the Clinton administration. During the Obama-Clinton contest for the Democratic Party nomination in 2008, she pointedly criticized the woman she now would like to succeed; later that year she ridiculed Sen. John McCain for his “reckless” policies and said “his tendency is to shoot first and ask questions later.”    (Source)

While many see her assessment of McCain as spot on, it most assuredly has played a role in McCain’s assumption of a leading role in the assault of the GOP establishment on Rice’s performance tour on the Sunday talk shows in the wake of the attack upon our diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya that resulted in the killing of four US citizens, including our Libyan ambassador.

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice

Notwithstanding that Rice may not fit McCain’s definition of charming, many of the attacks on her performance have been scurrilous and despicable. Detractors have implied that she is some combination of a “not very bright” incompetent liar.

Senate Republicans certainly want to prevent Rice from becoming Secretary of State as a way of damaging the President. But they are using language and tactics that demean black women while using them as surrogate targets.

A clear pattern is on display in the current assault on the intelligent, accomplished, well-educated Susan Rice, whose resume sports being a Rhodes Scholar among her credentials. The disrespect she is being accorded calls to mind the treatment awarded to among others: Anita Hill [portrayed as jilted lover of Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas]; Lani Guinier [caricaturized as the “Quota Queen” when nominated by President Clinton as an assistant attorney general]; and Michelle Obama [denounced as “unpatriotic”].

Accomplished black women who step up in any way or in any manner that challenges either white or male privilege are still stereotyped and demonized in a way unrivaled by any other demographic. 

Is it race or gender? If you are a black woman, it doesn’t really matter. This is just an ugly part of American history manifested in code words and other behaviors that are residues of the belief that confident and accomplished black women are in truth merely uppity and underserving “affirmative action babies”.

Black men need to join the women of all colors and beliefs [including some Republican women] who are not so quietly outraged at the dwindling party of white male privilege that perpetrates these outrages and the band of soggy liberals who permit it.

So let me here praise and thank my Congresswoman, Marcia Fudge, president-elect of the Congressional Black Caucus, for calling out Rice’s hypocritical detractors. Rep. Fudge this week held a press conference where she denounced critics of Rice who say she is “unqualified”, calling them “haters” who pick on women and minorities when something goes wrong. 

Her comments got some well-deserved play on Cleveland’s Ideastream and even showed up on The Daily Show, where Jon Stewart joked that she had turned the House into a Tyler Perry production. See full episode here.

A good friend of mine, an astute and well-informed observer on these matters, emailed me to say that that Fudge’s “comments about the poisonous race-gender admixture in the GOP treatment of Susan Rice [were] very powerful and made me really proud she represents me. " 

Amen.

• • •

Caviness Leads Push: Nina Turner as OH Secretary of State

Black Ministers Start Groundswell:

Turner as Secretary of State in 2014

A small but influential group of black ministers, labor officials and community activists met at a Glenville area church Tuesday night to promote the candidacy of State Senator Nina Turner as Ohio’s next Secretary of State, hoping to spark a fuse that will catapult a black candidate to the upper levels of state government.

L-R: first row, Marcia McCoy, Bishop F.E. Perry, Rev. E.T. Caviness,  Fred Harris,  Vic Rubenstein, Art McKoy, Darlene Hardimon; 2d row: William Nix, Rev. Tyrone Davis,Shermaine Oliver, Barbara Rogers, [Cleveland Black Nurses Association] Pam Mason, ATU No. 268], Dr. Patricia McDonald, Mary Davis, Evelyn Bolden, Patricia Patterson, Rev. Dr. David Hunter [Baptist Ministers Conference]; 3d row: Rev. Larry Harris, [United Pastors In Mission] Rev. Ivory Jones, Rev. Dan Smith, Mt. Moriah Baptist [Photo: Jeff Ivey]

If their efforts prove ultimately successful, Turner would be the first African American Democrat of either gender to be elected to statewide office in Ohio.

The dismal history of African American Democrats as candidates for statewide office — not one has ever achieved a statewide win in 12 attempts by ten different candidates dating to 1972 — was detailed at the beginning of this week in a front page story from Sunday’s Plain Dealer.

The article was clearly the immediate catalyst for the meeting. Transparencies of the article were projected on a wall and read aloud, with meeting convener, the Rev. Dr. E. T. Caviness regularly interjecting emphatic commentary to underscore his disgust with what he portrayed as an unacceptable lack of commitment by Ohio’s Democrats to support its black candidates in state contests.

Following this discussion of the article, a critical excerpt was read on-screen and discussed from Carl Stokes’ seminal book, Promises of Power. The selection described the origins of the Twenty-First Congressional District Caucus, that hallowed moment in the early seventies when black political power reached its short-lived apex in Cuyahoga County. Under then-Mayor Stokes leadership, the unified political strength of the black community drew respect from every politician of any color and either party. The Caucus occasionally would provide crucial support to a white Republican candidate, sending a message to both renegade black candidates and retrograde Democratic Party leaders.

The message of Tuesday’s meeting was clear: it is time for the Ohio Democratic Party to do whatever it takes to elect a black Democrat to statewide office. Caviness acknowledged that the Party had worked to retain incumbent Justice Yvette McGee Brown on the state Supreme Court, investing a reported $750,000 in her campaign. But it wasn’t enough, he thundered, adding that if need be they should spend one million seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars to support Turner.

Rev. E. T. Caviness [Photo by Jeff Ivey]

Caviness kicked off the fundraising part of the meeting by saying he had pledged $1000 to the draft Turner effort and that Rev. Larry Harris of Mt. Olive Baptist Church and the president of Black Pastors in Mission would do the same. Before the evening was over almost $15,000 had been pledged, much of it coming from the national transit workers union, whose local representative, William Nix, Local 268 president, was in attendance.

No Permanent Friends or Enemies, only Permanent Interests, so Politics Makes Strange Bedfellows

Addressing the unspoken irony that this gathering of very mainstream black Democrats in the room was working to draft the same black woman whose outspoken policies and independent ways they had spent much of the last three years vilifying, Caviness said that “we had to forgive her” even though she had “stabbed us in the back”. Caviness was referring to the contention of many that Turner had agreed at a meeting of black politicos to oppose the reformation of county government only to emerge a few days later as a featured champion of reform.

Turner offers a different version of those events but the stark reality is that she proved to be right and her political foes wrong on all counts. Black voters all across the community rejected the conservative counsel of their elected representatives and hoary leaders. And hindsight suggests that the voters were right: not only is there a more rational system of county government in place, but the black community appears to have stronger representation and voice in that new government.

This outcome no doubt fueled Turner’s flirtation late last year with the idea of challenging Congresswoman Marcia Fudge in this year’s Democratic primary. Fudge reacted quickly with an impressive show of district-wide support. Once again Turner was vilified in large measure by the establishment black political community. This time, Turner’s political calculus, informed by Fudge’s demonstration and the truncated Ohio primary season belatedly set by the legislature, convinced Turner to channel her political ambition elsewhere.

Turner has done so energetically, maintaining a rigorous and demanding schedule. Somehow she manages to juggle her work as a state legislator along with her duties as a history professor at Cuyahoga Community College, speaking regularly before community groups, and appearing frequently as a guest on MSNBC talk shows.

“Secretary of Suppression”

With Ohio in the national cross-hairs as the quintessential battleground state in the recent presidential campaign, much attention was focused on the coordinated nationwide efforts of Republicans to curtail voting rights by cutting back early voting, seeking to establish unnecessary voter ID requirements, and generally discouraging voting by those whose lives were already burdened with the pressures and complications of just trying to get through the day. In Ohio, those partisan efforts were centered in the office of Secretary of State Jon Husted, who Turner took to lambasting on MSNBC as the “Secretary of Suppression”.

After the meeting, Caviness called and spoke with Turner in Columbus, where she is working in the midst of the General Assembly’s lame-duck session. Reached later by this reporter, Turner seemed at a rare loss for words, saying that she was “humbled” by the show of support. Pressed as to whether she had made a decision on whether to take on Husted in 2014, Turner said that she would decide sometime in January, acknowledging that an early decision was necessary given the requirements of running a statewide race.

Other sources contacted by The Real Deal said they expected Turner to make the race. She is passionate about making a difference through government service, they say, and protecting citizens’ voting rights has once again become a core issue, nearly fifty years after the country’s civil rights revolution.

Turner is also term-limited as a state senator, which is likely to spur her willingness to become the standard bearer for what may turn out to be, in the words of one meeting participant, “an excellent opportunity to elect the first black to statewide office.”

CONGRESSWOMAN FUDGE TO CHAIR CONGRESSIONAL BLACK CAUCUS

Congresswoman Marcia L. Fudge (OH-11) was elected Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus [CBC] today by its 43 members. She will assume the position when the next term of Congress begins in January.

Fudge, a former mayor of Warrensville Heights, was first elected to Congress in 2008 in a special election after the death of Stephanie Tubbs Jones, who had held the seat since 1999. Fudge then won the  regular 2008 election and has been reelected twice since then.

"I am humbled by the vote of confidence of my colleagues who have selected me to serve as the Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus during the 113th Congress.  Leadership of the CBC will be shared among all officers elected and I will continue to work hard and serve with dedication, the people who sent me to Congress," Fudge said in a statement released by her office this afternoon. 

  

"As Chair, I look forward to leading this venerable Caucus, and to speak and act on behalf of its members who share a vision and commitment to move our nation forward," Fudge said.

Ohio will have two African American members of its Congressional delegation for the first time when the new Congress is sworn in in January. Joyce Beatty of Columbus was elected last week to represent Ohio's Third Congressional District.

• • •

Hilton Smith wins NAACP Presidency; Turnout Doubles from Last Election

Rev. Hilton Smith, a longtime NAACP supporter and community leader,  won a two year term today to become the next president of the Cleveland Branch.

Two hundred fifty nine votes were cast officially, with Smith garnering roughly 40% in the three way race with Jocelyn Travis and Clint Bradley.

Smith is a senior vice president for Turner Construction Co. and the associate pastor of Greater Abyssinia Baptist Church. The church's senior pastor, the Rev. E. T. Caviness, was elected first vice president.

This year's contest generated more interest than any of the previous ten races.

Golden Opportunity Today for Local NAACP

A small number of Greater Clevelanders have an excellent chance today to strike a large blow for the future of their fellow citizens, especially the ones of African American descent, by voting for two rising stars as part of the Cleveland NAACP leadership team.

The two stars — Clint Bradley and Danielle Sydnor — epitomize what civil rights pioneers must have envisioned a half-century ago: a new world that the children of hard-working families could, by working hard themselves, staying out of trouble, taking advantage of educational and career opportunities, practicing a strong personal and communal ethic, building healthy families, focusing on achievement instead of glitz, could become accomplished citizens and community leaders.

Clint and Danielle have achieved all this and more. Today they are asking voting members of the Cleveland NAACP to ratify the faith their elders placed in an even younger group of civil rights leaders in the most glorious days in the history of civil rights. Martin King Jr. was 26 when he was named to lead the bus boycott in Birmingham. Malcolm X was at his most brilliant in his 30s. Carl Stokes was barely 40 when elected Cleveland mayor. To this list could be added Julian Bond, John Lewis, Bob Moses, Diane Nash, and literally hundreds of others.

How did we get so fat and happy as to think that we could prosper and grow as a community only by entrusting our communal power to a small group of largely self-appointed old men who amass and circulate power only among themselves? [I pose that question specifically with Cleveland’s African American community in mind, but the same question could be posed of the people who for so long controlled this city’s financial and legal communities. And, oh yes, some members of one of the country’s major political parties might be looking for answers to that question as well.]

Clint Bradley and Danielle Sydnor are perhaps the first people under forty in a generation to seek leadership roles in the Cleveland NAACP. Clint is 37, grew up in Collinwood, won an early scholarship award from the local Metropolitan Alliance of Black School Educators, went to college in Indiana and then returned home to build a career in business and raise a family. He is not one to take the easy road: he’s the only black commercial real estate broker in this region, and perhaps the state. Along the way he has acquired master’s degrees from both Case Western Reserve and Cleveland State, and just last year bought and revamped a thirty-year old construction company in the inner city that has won contracts with both Cleveland’s casino and the Medical Mart.

Danielle grew up learning the value of hard work and entrepreneurship from her parents, who operated a small print shop — Sydnor Printing — in Cleveland’s Larchmere neighborhood just off Shaker Square. Today, she counsels small business owners, families, and professionals on wealth building strategies as a Merrill Lynch representative. She is also raising two remarkable poised young men as a single parent; they accompany her frequently as she participates in civic engagements.

Clint and Danielle face formidable opposition in their bid to begin the rebuilding of a once respected but still important civic organization that long ago lost its way as a result of a generation of selfish and sclerotic leadership that even now seeks to perpetuate itself in place.

This is in no way an attempt to castigate my good friend Hilton Smith, the odds-on favorite to be the next Cleveland NAACP president. Hilton has been a faithful supporter of the organization for more than four decades. He has nationwide connections with NAACP elders, has built a strong record on equal opportunity for Turner Construction, and has faithfully discharged many civic responsibilities in our fair city.

At age 66, Hilton’s contemporaries respect him immensely and value his counsel. But the time for him to lead the NAACP should have come and gone. I would have championed his candidacy had he stepped forward at any time in the past two decades to challenge the misguided and disastrous reign of the incumbent. He didn’t do it, nor did anyone else. The torch must now be passed to a generation with new ideas and energy.

It may readily be conceded that Hilton’s prestige, personal integrity, and bulging Rolodex of influential people would do much to begin the rehabilitation of an organization that is but a shadow of its former self. But Hilton himself has a shadow of great concern is in the person of the esteemed E. T. Caviness, senior pastor of Greater Abyssinia Baptist Church, where Hilton himself is an associate pastor.

In sharp contrast to his personal flamboyance, Caviness is moving to consolidate virtually all local civil rights influence in his pulpit seat. He is president of the Cleveland chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. He leads the local efforts of Al Sharpton’s National Action Network. He controls a local Baptist ministerial group. He established control of the Cleveland NAACP’s nominating process and is running unopposed as for First Vice President. His daughter, who reports to Hilton at Turner Construction, is also a candidate for the NAACP Executive Committee. Several other slate members defer to him as well.

Caviness is 84 years old but possesses the vitality and apparently the ambition of a much younger man. It is neither healthy nor necessary to entrust so much authority in one person or place. Neither the Speaker of the Ohio House nor anyone else should be able to make one telephone call and receive a blessing in the name of a whole community on matters that affect that community.  We have been there and experienced that enough. Can I get an Amen on that?

You can check out Clint and Hilton’s cases for their election here, along with that of Jocelyn Travis, a longtime NAACP worker and perhaps the Branch’s most loyal member. But if you are eligible to vote, you should choose Clint and Danielle.

The particulars of the election are at the end of this post. One final note: James Hardiman, the current local NAACP president, withdrew his name as a candidate for 3^rd Vice President. He told friends that he felt it would be hypocritical for him to run for the position when he has been a proponent of developing young leadership.

Danielle Sydnor is about 30; her remaining opponents are double or close to triple her age.

TODAY’s ELECTION

The basics: every two years the Cleveland NAACP elects officers along with an Executive Committee that is supposed to function as a Board of Trustees. This year’s biennial election takes place TODAY, Sunday, November 11, 2012. There is ONE POLLING PLACE — Calvary Church of God in Christ, 2940 Martin Luther King Dr. Voting begins at 1PM and the poll will close at 5PM. Any eligible member [dues paid thirty days before today] in line at closing time will be allowed to vote.

This is not a meeting, simply a vote. The process for most should take no more than five minutes, as there are only two contested races: President and 3^rd Vice President. The other offices are all uncontested. There are twenty-five candidates running presumably for 24 seats on the Executive Committee. I attempted to verify the number of committee members to be elected but not one member of the Elections Supervisory Committee or the office responded to my inquiry.

Bring your membership card and some photo identification, if possible. You can’t be too careful these days.

• • •

I expect the results will be known by about 9PM today. I will post periodically throughout the day. Stop in to check because I probably will be too preoccupied to send the usual tantalizing emails.