Congressional Black Caucus at Brave New Films

Congressional Black Caucus for Obama pressuring Hillary supporters

2008-02-16T14:55:31Z

How much influence will the Black Caucus have, I wonder? Wow! All I had to do was ask and look at that! I have an answer:

Members of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) who support Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) for president are pressuring their colleagues backing Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), telling them to listen to voters and switch their endorsements.
The effort to boost Obama’s slate of CBC supporters appears to have paid off.

Here are a couple of examples:

Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.), a key Obama supporter, said Friday that he has been lobbying Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), one of Clinton’s most important black supporters, to abandon the New York Senator’s campaign.
Rep. Lacy Clay (D-Mo.), who is also supporting Obama, spoke with Rep. David Scott (D-Ga.), a Clinton backer, earlier this month.
Lewis, a prominent civil rights leader, said that he could change his mind on Clinton, and Scott has already decided to defect, according to published reports. However, a story in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution said that Lewis’s staff called the report “inaccurate.”

I think we've all heard the Lewis story by now. More:

They are not stopping with Lewis and Scott. Conyers, Clay and about 50 key players working to get Obama elected are actively lobbying other members of the CBC and beyond with the message that voters have spoken in their districts and the verdict is Obama.
Clay offered the case of Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas), a major Clinton surrogate who represents a district in Houston, as someone who should take notice.
“Say, for instance, the city of Houston overwhelmingly votes for Obama,” said Clay. “I would think that Ms. Jackson Lee looks at how her district voted. She may have second thoughts, or what I call buyer’s remorse.”
Conyers said it is important to heed the word of the voters.

Sidebar: I've signed a couple of petitions asking the superdelegates to "heed the word of the voters", have you?

In at least 13 of the 15 districts represented by a CBC member who has publicly supported Clinton, a majority of voters have instead chosen Obama as their choice for the party’s nominee. Two districts represented by Clinton CBC supporters have not gone to the polls yet.

Here's an interesting tidbit:

In addition to Lewis and Scott, the list of CBC members who have endorsed Clinton but found the majority of voters from their districts back Obama includes: Florida Reps. Kendrick Meek, Alcee Hastings and Corinne Brown; California Reps. Maxine Waters, Diane Watson, and Laura Richardson; Missouri Rep. Emanuel Cleaver; New York Reps. Gregory Meeks, Yvette Clarke, and Edolphus Towns; and Virgin Islands Del. Donna Christensen. All are Democrats. [...] Several Clinton supporters plan to remain in her camp despite caucus and primary results in their districts.

As the pundits get more and more frothy over how much fun this race is, I'm wishing that a clear frontrunner would emerge ::coughObamacough:: so that we could avoid a messy situation. Until that happens, it looks like we have to endure more spitty, self-important, leg-thrilling 2008 election moments.

The Lawn Jockey Awards: Holding the Congressional Black Caucus accountable

2008-01-12T20:21:05Z

The CBC Monitor and Black Agenda Report are putting together an event called Lawn Jockey Awards on 26 September 2007 in Washington DC. More details here.

These events that hold the government publicly accountable are not only [sadly] entertaining, but they are fundamental to the success & survival of representative democracy. This political age is too familiar with politicians who thumb their noses at the people they represent, caring only about a small, ~~influential~~ rich subset of their constituency.

The Congressional Black Caucus is just as guilty of this as any other subset of the legislature. However, given the general lack of attention afforded to Black issues in media and government, this adversely the Black folks the caucus represents even further.

I'd like to see "awards" like this given out for every caucus within the Congress. It's time to start getting politicians to put their votes where their rhetoric is. Too often these two do not align.

Can I vote for Carolyn Cheeks-Kilpatrick?

The Congressional Business Caucus?

2008-01-12T20:19:38Z

Jonathan Chait of The New Republic says that the Congressional Black Caucus is trying hard to get into bed with big business and lobbyists.

Why would they want to do that? Probably because instead of being better than the Republicans, some members would secretly rather be just like the Republicans, at least in the way they handle the political process. What these members fail to realize is that it's pretty hard to find Washington Republicans that have Black folks' best interests at heart, and even harder to find major US Corporations that have Black folks' best interests at heart.

I ask that you contact members of the CBC and ask that they turn this trend around and get back to the vision and goals of the original members of the caucus:

to promote the public welfare through legislation designed to meet the needs of millions of neglected citizens

And I thought I was done with the CBC. I guess I thought too soon.