I'm amazed to find myself on the same side of an issue as Kweisi Mfume, former CEO of the NAACP, but I'm even more amazed that other leftist politicians (of every color) are so disguistingly racist.
Three of Maryland's top Democrats -- including the two leading candidates for governor next year -- declined to repudiate comments by black Democratic leaders who said racially tinged attacks against Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele are fair because he is a black conservative Republican. ...But Kweisi Mfume, who is running for senator, yesterday outright condemned the comments by his fellow black Democrats.
"Racially tinged attacks have no place in this campaign for U.S. Senate," said Mr. Mfume, who has chided his party's lack of support for his campaign. "If they did, I could very well be the object of public racial humiliation, based on my skin color, by people who don't like my politics."
"Black bigotry can be just as cruel and evil as white bigotry. There are too many bigots in too many places," Mr. Mfume said, repeating a common refrain from his speeches.
These "racially tinged attacks" against Michael Steele include pelting him with Oreo cookies (to indicate that he's "black on the outside, but white on the inside"), calling him an "Uncle Tom", and equating him to a house slave because he isn't a leftist Democrat.
Despite Mr. Mfume's proper condemnation, there may still be some confusion among his staffers.
Even the spokesman for Mr. Mfume's campaign said pelting Mr. Steele with Oreo cookies and calling him an "Uncle Tom" are simply "pointing out the obvious.""There is a difference between pointing out the obvious and calling someone names," Mfume spokesman Joseph R. Trippi said Tuesday.
Some other Democrats have come out against this blatant racism, such as Delegate Dereck Davis and U.S. Rep. Albert R. Wynn; I suppose these two deserve the modicum of praise due to all of us who aren't racist bigots.
Update:
For the record, Joe Trippi says that he was misquoted, and based on his phrasing it's pretty clear that he was.
Two days ago I received a call from reporter S.A. Miller of the Washington Times — he asked me if I condoned throwing Oreo cookies at Lt. Gov Steele or calling him an “Uncle Tom”. My immediate response was that such attacks “were dispicable and have no place in American politics — that such attacks were repugnant”You can not find that quote in either of two Times stories on the subject.
Miller later in the interview asked me if race would be an issue — I said that civil rights and discrimination were obvious issues that mattered and that there was a diference “between stating the obvious and calling someone names” — and used a recent controversy over a fundraiser for Gov. Erlich as an example of something that was obviously an issue and not name calling.
