Anderson@Large

Rep. Waters Says ‘Bring it On’

In response to Rep. Maxine Waters’ call for the release of the charges against her, the House Ethics Committee has formally charged Waters with three counts of violating the letter and spirit of House rules.

The Committee alleges that Waters’ and her chief of staff’s involvement with OneUnited Bank violated conflict of interest rules. Chief of Staff Mikael Moore is also her grandson.

Waters wants the Committee to hold a public trial so that she can “show [her] constituents and the American public that the accusations against [her] are frivolous and unfounded.”

Waters wants the trial to be held before Election Day, which is 83 days away.

During an appearance on the Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr.’s radio show, “Keep Hope Alive,” Waters said she wants an opportunity to lay out the facts:

I’m not going to be anybody’s sacrificial lamb…I’m supposed to be scared. Negative, positive, it doesn’t matter to me…The press can say what it wants to say. I have the facts. In a public hearing, I will bring out the facts and I will win.

Barbara Arnwine, executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, believes the charges against Waters are designed to “constrain advocacy for African American interests”:

Rep. Waters is a powerful advocate for economic interests. They’re trying to constrain this voice.

Arnwine told Waters:

When you strike a woman, you strike a rock. We’re going to stand with you.

In an interview with TheGrio.com, Waters talked about the impact of two possible ethics trials on the midterm elections:

The Democrats don’t benefit from this this close to the election. It puts them on the defensive. Even if you argue that it seems that the ethics investigation process is working, the Democrats having to defend the process at this time doesn’t help the party. It’s hurtful because it gives the Republicans a chance to say, “See the Democrats have all those problems over there.” I don’t know if they’ll do that because they’re a lot of Republicans that have been investigated. But there’s nothing positive in this for the Democrats.

But Waters refuses to be a poster child for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s promise to “drain the swamp.”

Waters vowed:

Before that happens to me, I’ll bring down the whole ecological system.

Dems’ Retro Voter Turnout Strategy

Forty-five years ago, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed into law the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

President Barack Obama recognized the occasion in a statement:

As we pause to reflect on the anniversary of that historic moment, I encourage every American to honor the legacy of the brave men and women who came before us – from the foot soldiers to the Freedom Riders – by exercising the rights they fought so hard to guarantee. And together let us recommit ourselves, in ways large and small, to continuing their journey to promote equality and perfect our union.

With an eye on the midterm elections, Obama continued:

As we pause to reflect on the anniversary of that historic moment, I encourage every American to honor the legacy of the brave men and women who came before us – from the foot soldiers to the Freedom Riders – by exercising the rights they fought so hard to guarantee.

Obama’s political arm, Organizing for America, was anything but subtle. In an email blast, Rep. John Lewis wrote:

Discrimination still exists in America -- its effects can be as harmful as they were decades ago. And we can always become a better, more just society.

Two years ago, this movement -- led by Barack Obama -- brought millions of people into the political process for the first time.

I’m told that many of you are working hard now to get as many as possible of those folks -- and others from across the country who are with us in these fights -- to the polls this year.

It’s an important effort, and the legacy of the fight for the Voting Rights Act is that it is not only our right to vote, and to help others do so -- it is our duty.

Lewis is an icon of the civil rights movement, but the message that one has a duty to vote does not resonate with young people and first-time voters.

So in their desperation, Democrats are bringing back George W. Bush to try to mobilize their base. The Washington Post reported:

As they brace for a difficult fall election, dispirited Democrats hoping to get back some of that 2008 magic are turning to the president for inspiration.

President Bush, that is.

Will blaming Bush work? I doubt it.

In the wake of the 2000 Florida election debacle, Democrats promised to punish Bush’s brother, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who was running for reelection in 2002.

It wasn’t even close. Jeb won reelection with 56 percent of the vote.

By 2004, bashing President Bush was a hardy perennial. Democrats vowed to remember in November. But some Democratic voters forgot.

When the polls closed, the presidential election came down to Ohio. And it was too close to call.

Bush won Ohio with 16 percent of the black vote. By contrast in 2000, Bush garnered only seven percent black support.

With a jobless recovery and one-party rule in DC, Democrats will need a more compelling voter mobilization message than “Stay out the Bushes. Stay out the Bushes.”

Black Jobless Rate is 15.6 Percent

The July jobs report is out. The unemployment rate was unchanged at 9.5 percent.

The black unemployment rate is 15.6 percent, up from 15.4 percent in June. The black jobless rate is nearly twice that of whites (8.6 percent).

Black teens have the highest unemployment rate, 40.6 percent.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports the economy lost 131,000 jobs last month, primarily 143,000 temporary Census jobs. Private employers added just 71,000 jobs.

On the first Friday, the bubbly Christina Romer, chair of President Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers, typically paints a rosy scenario about the jobs report. With a smiley face, Romer tells the American people not to worry about the numbers. We are making “substantial progress.” Yeah, really :-).

But Romer’s days are numbered. She is leaving the White House and heading back to UC-Berkeley, where she was a professor of economics.

As the saying goes, those who can, do. Those who can’t, teach. Romer can’t reconcile her prediction that the stimulus package would prevent the unemployment rate from rising above eight percent.

Well, the Recovery Act was passed, 62 percent of the money has been spent, and the unemployment rate continues to hover in the double-digits.

Indeed, Moody’s Economy.com forecasts the unemployment rate “will peak at 10.1% in the second half of 2011.”

Criticism Raining Down on NAACP

When it rains, it pours.

And as blogger Gina McCaul noted, “It’s a monsoon over at NAACP headquarters these days.”

In the wake of the Shirley Sherrod debacle, criticism has rained down on the NAACP.

NAACP President and CEO Benjamin Jealous has been in hot water ever since he pushed through a resolution condemning “the bigoted elements within the Tea Party.”

Jealous’ stewardship of the nation’s largest and oldest civil rights organization is being questioned by old media columnists, including Bob Herbert and Maureen Dowd.

TheRoot.com’s Lynette Holloway asked, “Does the NAACP Have a Leadership Problem?”

A number of bloggers, including Gina and Amy Alexander, have put Jealous on blast.

Gina wrote:

On Wednesday, I called for the resignation of NAACP President Benjamin Jealous. I did so not because he was “snookered.” I did so because I believe at this juncture in his personal development and the current political and technological environment he is unfit to lead as demonstrated by his inability to accept complete and total responsibility for his organization’s bad acts. Nobody made the NAACP condemn Shirley Sherrod before speaking to ITS OWN MEMBERS who were present at her speech. No one made the NAACP condemn Shirley Sherrod before getting its hands on a tape of her speech shot by ITS OWN MEMBERS. Nobody forced them to pick a fight with a foe they are CLEARLY too inept to respond to in a strategically sound and competent way. The NAACP took the path of LEAST RESISTANCE and when they were called on it they tried to deflect responsibility for their own BAD ACTS. Leaders take responsibility. LOSERS make excuses.

And it’s not just New York Times columnists and bloggers piling on. When a mathematician starts talking, you know you’ve got a problem.

Dr. Jonathan David Farley graduated summa cum laude from Harvard University. He earned a Ph.D. in mathematics from Oxford University.

Jonathan, a lifetime member of the NAACP, recounted his own “Shirley Sherrod moment” in a recent blog post.

In the age of social media, don’t start folks talking because they have a platform to tell everything they know.

Arizona’s Illegal Immigration Fix

Although a federal judge has blocked parts of SB 1070, the battle over illegal immigration rages on in Arizona and across the nation.

ABCNews.com reports:

From the Midwest to the East Coast, some cities and states are taking the unusual step of implementing laws and regulations that cross into the traditional jurisdiction of the federal government.

In the first quarter of 2010 alone, state legislators in 45 states introduced 1,180 bills and resolutions relating to immigrants and refugees, up from the first quarter of 2009, when 25 states passed 35 laws and adopted 40 resolutions, according to the bipartisan National Conference of State Legislators.

Meanwhile, Gov. Jan Brewer is considering a fix to the law that would address the concerns raised by U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton. Brewer told Capitol Media Services:

We knew that she had concerns with those particular sections...Obviously, I have considered that. And probably over the next few weeks will make some kind of decision if that’s the direction we want to go or not, We could address that legislatively and please the court.

In any case, one picture is worth a thousand words.

Troubled Waters

Democrats are facing double trouble in the run-up to the midterm elections.

First, Rep. Charles Rangel was accused of 13 ethics violations. It is troubling the former chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee allegedly failed to pay his taxes.

For New Yorkers, affordable housing is a hot-button issue. So it is especially troubling that Rangel arrogated unto himself four rent-controlled apartments while living la vida loca in the Dominican Republic.

Yesterday, the Office of Congressional Ethics released its report on Rep. Maxine Waters, who is accused of steering TARP funds to a bank in which her husband held stock.

The summary of allegations reads:

There is a substantial reason to believe that Representative Waters’ conduct may have violated House Rule 23, clause 3 and House precedent regarding conflict of interest when she called then Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and requested that Treasury Department officials meet with representatives from the National Bankers Association. A meeting was in fact granted, however, the discussion at the meeting centered on a single bank—OneUnited. Representative Waters’ husband had been a board member of the bank from 2004 to 2008 and, at the time of the meeting, was a stock holder of the bank.

In a statement, Waters denied any wrongdoing:

I have not violated any House rules.

Therefore, I simply will not be forced to admit to something I did not do and instead have chosen to respond to charges made by the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct in a public hearing.

The possible public trials may play out in September when thousands of black elected officials, academics, community and thought leaders, and activists will be in DC for the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s annual legislative conference.

Waters’ “Banking Issues Forum” is sure to attract a large crowd of constituents and supporters, as well as a media circus.

CBC Week chatter will likely revive the decades-old narrative about the “harassment” of black elected officials.

UPDATE: CBC Chair Barbara Lee released the following statement on Waters:

The House of Representatives has a long-standing and well established ethics process, which should be allowed to proceed without prejudging the outcome. Although the alleged charges remain unclear, some in the media have sought to indict Congresswoman Waters in clear disregard of her right to a fair and due process.

Throughout her tenure in Congress, and in the California State Legislature before that, Congresswoman Waters has been a tireless and effective advocate for underrepresented and underserved communities and institutions. She continues to be an important voice on those and many other issues and should not have her rights usurped by politicians or the press.

It’s on.

Ain’t No Party like a UNI-TEA Party

Those words were spoken by rapper Jericho Saliz, who performed at Saturday’s UNI-TEA rally in Philadelphia.

David Webb emceed the event.

Webb said the idea for the rally pre-dated the Shirley Sherrod debacle:

It’s not a reaction to the recent news cycle. It’s a proactive move conceived by the idea that we need to show what the Tea Party is all about...This movement has blown up.

UNI-TEA attracted roughly 300 people. Like most conservative events, there were nearly as many African Americans on the stage as in the crowd.

During an appearance on Fox News’ “Geraldo At Large,” Webb said it was not about the numbers:

I didn’t realize there was a minimum number of black people to legitimize it.

I interviewed several of the black tea partiers. They share Webb’s commitment to “limited, efficient and effective government.” They were there to “send a message to America that this is [their] movement.”

The NAACP’s resolution was on people’s minds. While noting he doesn’t want to belabor the issue, Webb added:

We must address the issues where they stand. We must defend an American movement.

The blogger at the center of the latest racial dust-up, Andrew Breitbart, was one of the speakers.

During an interview with Newsweek , Breitbart said he would like to speak with Sherrod in private. I caught up with Breitbart in the middle of a media scrum.

I asked Breitbart what he would say to Sherrod if she were here. His response, “I’m not talking about that today.”

Breitbart had a lot to say about the allegation that members of the Congressional Black Caucus were called the n-word:

These people were there to provoke a YouTube moment. And when the good people of the Tea Party, 40,000 strong, did not provide them with that moment, something really rotten happened. They made it up.

Breitbart blasted the mainstream media:

These people overplayed their hands in our new media world. Why do we have a new media world? To a great extent because we don’t trust the mainstream media. So we are armed with cameras and we are on the lookout for their lies…They would have gotten away with it 10 years ago. They would have gotten away with it 15 years ago…We are watching you. We are the mainstream media now because we don’t trust you.

A number of speakers, including Breitbart, read verbatim Dr. Mary Frances Berry’s post to Politico:

Tainting the tea party movement with the charge of racism is proving to be an effective strategy for Democrats. There is no evidence that tea party adherents are any more racist than other Republicans, and indeed many other Americans. But getting them to spend their time purging their ranks and having candidates distance themselves should help Democrats win in November. Having one’s opponent rebut charges of racism is far better than discussing joblessness.

Tea partiers feel vindicated by Berry’s truth-telling, as well as recent reports that liberal journalists were prepared to play the race card in 2008 to help then-candidate Barack Obama survive the Rev. Jeremiah Wright controversy.

As this sign from an earlier rally makes clear, tea partiers fully intend to push back against accusations of racism.

So playing the race card is as inconsequential as throwing water on a duck’s back.

Tea partiers’ anger is boiling over, but the true measure of the movement will be whether their candidates win in November.

UPDATE: Event organizer Jeffrey Weingarten left this comment on my Facebook wall: “Our estimates show there were over 1,000 different folks who visited UNI-TEA during the day.”