There's A Difference?

Fox News gets caught throwing up footage of any old black Congressman (in this case John Conyers) when talking about indicted Dem William Jefferson (who considered switching parties in 2004, by the way):



By the way, the Congressional Black Caucus is actually pleading with candidates to come to their Presidential debate which is being held on Fox News. For their reward, they are essentially told that they all look the same. What do they call that, learned helplessness?

Please Go Home, Joe Biden

I don't even know why I'm wasting my time on Joe Biden, a guy who has about as much of a chance getting the Democratic nomination for President as Joe Lieberman does (for that matter, as much of a chance as I do). But this is pretty low. Most of the top Presidential candidates are skipping a debate put on by the CBC that is being shown on Fox News. There are legitimate reasons for this, because Fox News is simply not a credible news outlet, and the last time they held a Democratic debate it was a complete debacle. But Biden played the race card in trying to focus the attention on the CBC instead of Fox News.

"The single most important constituency in the Democratic Party -- African Americans, led by the Black Caucus, which are the leadership of the black community, asked us to show for a debate and we're not going to show up?" he said.

"Let me put it this way -- if the African American community stayed home or voted Republican, we're not going to elect another president."

That's not the point and Biden knows it. But he wants to make some cheap points with black voters. This is particularly amusing coming from the guy who approvingly called Barack Obama "clean" (by the way, Obama's skipping the debate, does that mean HE doesn't care about black people?) and burnished his credentials in South Carolina by proudly stating that he's a southerner because Delaware was a slave state (maybe that can be their new state motto; Delaware - Remember, We Were A Slave State!).

But that wasn't the only thing Biden was chatty about. He decided to criticize Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton for voting against the Iraq spending bill, buying into the right wing frame that it would "hurt the troops" by cutting off funding for them in the field, which is patently untrue. But that wasn't the most outrageous statement. He defended his own vote to fund the occupation on CNN by saying this:

BIDEN: This gets down to how do you change this war, Wolf?

Do you think the president of the United States, over the next four months -- this is only a four-month funding bill, for four months -- do you think, by us cutting off funding, he's going to withdraw troops?

And what do you think is going to happen to those troops in the field, as they run out of money?

Do you think this guy's going to pull them out? I'm not about to do that.

He's literally saying that the President would defy Congress and hold American troops hostage in a war zone, so there's no choice but to give in to his demands. That's the weakest, most infuriating statement I've seen on Iraq yet. Funding the war because the President won't listen anyway? Why hold Congress in session, in that case?

Joe Biden can go on that debate on Fox News, and then stay there as an analyst. Don't go back to Washington if you don't think your job is worth doing.

CA-37: Tempers Flare

I know, another post about the open-seat Long Beach-area race that essentially looks at identity politics. But this is pretty interesting. The Congressional Black Caucus will not endorse a candidate in the race, which includes two high-profile black candidates, Assemblywoman Laura Richardson and neophyte politician Valerie McDonald, daughter of the late Juanita Millender-McDonald. Apparently, it got heated within the CBC:

The decision, in part, stems from an internal political feud between two of California's most visible black members of Congress: Rep. Maxine Waters and Rep. Diane Watson, who split over who should get the Caucus' backing in the June 26 special election. In the end, the Caucus declined to endorse either one in the Long Beach-area race. Waters favors Assemblywoman Laura Richardson and Watson supports Valerie McDonald, the daughter of the late congresswoman. The dispute over the endorsement was marked by heated exchanges involving Waters and Watson.

The Congressional Black Caucus' decision was in sharp contrast to the state Legislature's nine-member Black Caucus, which endorsed Richardson.

Diane Watson is one of the few California legislators to back McDonald, and she was enough to get the CBC not to endorse. I still think the California Federation of Labor support for Richardson will ultimately be crucial, but the CBC would have been a nice capper as well.

I'll be covering this race a bit more in my Congressional roundup (look for it next week), but I'd say right now, Richardson has a slight edge over State Sen. Jenny Oropeza because of the labor endorsement and the fact that turnout will be low.

Getting Called On Their Crap

Pretty ballsy move by the Democratic National Committee. They're sanctioning six debates, one per month, leading up to the primaries, and they just announced that none of them will be on Fox News, including the one set up by the Congressional Black Caucus.

It's tough to go against the CBC but this is the right move. For too long there has been literally no accountability for what Fox News has done with its biased reporting and Republican propaganda. The last time they ran a Democratic debate it was a nightmare. If they hold the microphones, if they control the cameras, then they control how the candidates are presented. Jesse Jackson has joined a chorus of African-American bloggers and new-media types in slamming the CBC's decision, which may have been motivated through News Corp. donations to them.

The Democratic Party is now branding and headlining the effort to marginalize Fox News, and to call it exactly what it is.

It truly is a new day.