NO REQUIEM FOR A BLACK CONSERVATIVE By Earl Ofari Hutchinson, BlackNews.com Columnist In a tear jerk moment toward the end of Claude Allen's abortive Senate confirmation hearing in 2003, Utah Senator Orin Hatch tossed a puffball question at him. He asked what his grandfather who was the first in his family born out slavery would say to him about his pending judgeship. Allen visibly moved by the question said that he would tell him to give back to those that he received from. Allen's answer told much about the GOP's two decade long court and tout of black conservatives. And that hasn't changed even when some of them embarrass the party with their shoot from the lip gaffes or fall from grace in a swirl of corruption and scandal. Allen has fit the bill on both counts. In 1982, he embarrassed the GOP with his slurs against gays and feminists, and two decades later during his confirmation hearing he didn't back away from them. He oddly claimed that the dictionary defined them as "odd or unusual" and he saw no reason to retract his slur. And now there's the allegation that he is a two-bit thief. But Allen is only the latest in a string of black conservative poster boys that have been dogged by scandal. In the 1980s Reagan's HUD Secretary Samuel Pierce was accused of corruption and influence peddling, and Clarence Pendleton Reagan's appointee to head the U.S. Civil Rights Commission was hit with allegations of illicit business dealings. Then there's the sexual scandal that embroiled Bush Sr.'s affirmative action Supreme Court nominee, Clarence Thomas in 1991. Last year, black Republican pitchman, Armstrong Williams was reviled for grabbing nearly a quarter of a million dollars from the White House to pump Bush's education policies, all the while masquerading as a neutral media commentator. In each case, the disgraced black Republican administration appointees, and boosters did not tumble as far from grace as might be expected. Pierce and Pendleton served no jail time, and resumed their business careers. Thomas is the much-prized conservative high court polemicist. Though Williams was bounced from his spot as a commentator on a few media outlets, he is still a frequent guest on talk shows, defending conservative policies. Their names quickly disappear from the scandal sheets. They are simply too valuable to be summarily tossed to the wolves. Conservatives desperately need blacks such as Allen to maintain the public illusion that black conservatives have real clout and a popular following in black communities. Their great value is that they promote the myth that a big segment of blacks support political conservative principles. In the last presidential election, Bush, Republican National Committee head Ken Mehlman, and strategist Karl Rove spent millions on outreach efforts to attract African-American voters. Mehlman has since barnstormed the country in tow with conservative blacks to primp the GOP's message to black groups. Allen and a handful of other blacks have relentlessly pumped Bush's policies on TV and radio talk shows, in op-ed columns, and in debates with civil rights leaders and liberal Democrats. The young black conservative political activists such as Allen spin, prime, and defend administration policies on affirmative action, welfare, laizzez faire capitalism, and anti-government regulations with the best of white conservatives. Bush's controversial federal court appeals nominee, black California Supreme Court Justice Janice Rogers Brown, once brashly claimed that she was "one of the few conservatives left in America." Allen did not make the same bold, and brash claim as Brown, but he is every bit the conservative ideologue as Brown. None of their efforts touting GOP policies have helped much. Bush still got only a marginal bump up overall in the black vote in 2004, and with his Katrina bumble his poll ratings are stuck even deeper in the tank with blacks. Still, Republicans have done everything possible to ease the way up the political ladder for their bevy of black conservatives. Allen's career is a textbook example of that. He was barely out of the University of North Carolina when he became the spokesmen for Senator Jesse Helm's reelection campaign in 1982. He moved from there to work for Republicans on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He then bagged a prize clerkship on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Next, he was appointed counsel for Virginia's Attorney General, and then he became Virginia's deputy attorney general and later secretary of health and human services. When his nomination for appeals court judge didn't pan out, Bush made him his top domestic policy advisor. In years past, scandal plagued black Republican boosters and appointees pretty much skated away with little more than a spate of bad publicity and a hand slap. Allen may not be as lucky. He may eventually be prosecuted. But as long as Republicans find men like him useful in their drive to make the party appear to be an authentic voice in black America, they'll do whatever they can to keep them as far out of legal harm's way as possible.
That the Republicans are just using black conservatives is not news. Their "real" base consists of the most racist bastards in the country, who are willing to do anything to get and mantain power, including putting a black face out there to get extra votes. Let's take affirmative action. Republicans are against it right. They argue that it encourages quotas, almost forces companies to hire unqualified people, and, worse, its reverse discrimination. But, with the exception of Colin Powell, every time they hire a black its so obvious that they view it as trying to fulfill a quota of some sort. For example, when Thurgood Marshall retired from the Supreme Court, George "I am against quotas" Bush Sr. picked Clarence Thomas to replace him. Thomas had very little experience and the American Bar Association did not give him the "unanimous well qualified" rating that every other justice on the Supreme Court, with the exception of Sandra Day O'Connor, has. In fact he did not even get a unanimous qualified rating - a lower rating - from the ABA. Its so obvious that he was nominated to replace the black justice because there were plenty of well qualified justices, black and white, at the time of the nomination. So what happened to the Republican argument against affirmative action and quotas and reverse discrimination? Nothing. They are still firmly against it. They are so slick though. They hired an unqualified black man to the position who is against affirmative action. Clarence Thomas who after he gets hired because of his color becomes devoutly color-blind and virtually kicks the outreach ladder away after he climbs it. Now, don't get me wrong. I think hiring people simply because they are black is wrong, especially if they are unqualified. But, if they are qualified, like Thurgood Marshall was, and have worked there way there, and not been appointed through their career like Clarence Thomas had been, AND they are a minority, I think, and its debatable, they should be given a few extra points because being a successful minority is more difficult. But, hiring unqualified people only gives the program's detractors walking evidence of why the program should not exist. That's why Clinton's policy was "Mend it, Don't End it", meaning hire qualified minorities. The Republican policy though is to hire unqualified minorities that are against reaching out to minorities, qualified or not. That allows them to get someone else who presumably can't be accused of being racist to do their dirty work.
This is all complete crap, and your signature (jxsilicon) says it all. All I have read in that article was another attempt of these black conservatives to make people like Bush, Rice, and Powell, seem like the 'better choice' because of their political party, and nothing more. I also find it ironic how a lot of these black liberals are closet conservatives also.
I remember that jerk he lived in my hometown,worked with Jesse Helms,and kissed Republican butt. Recently he is given probation. Wished he went to jail.
