Jack & Jill Politics

Ta-Nehisi Coates has written a very good article about our future First Lady.

Entitled, American Girl, it will be in the January/February 2009 issue of The Atlantic Magazine. Be sure to click on the left side for the video interview with his father on this article.

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Go head Russ!

“I am pleased by reports of the nomination of Leon Panetta to be the next CIA Director. These reports indicate that President-elect Obama recognizes the need for fresh leadership for the intelligence community. Leon Panetta has a long and distinguished career in public service and there are few people of whom I have a higher opinion. He has been a strong voice opposing the interrogation practices authorized by the Bush Administration and he is well-equipped to restore our national security, which has been undermined by the current administration’s policies. I look forward to closely examining his record, hearing his plans for protecting our nation against al Qaeda and other threats, and learning how he will help restore the rule of law after years of lawlessness that have undermined our national security.”

via Russ Feingold: In the News - Press Releases.

Breaking News — Roland has gotten the backhand while trying to join the 111th Congress today. Apparently:

Standing amid a huge throng of reporters and television cameras in a cold and steady rain, Burris, 71, declared that he had been informed that “my credentials are not in order and will not be accepted.”

You know I have to hand it to Blagojevich. It was like a lesson out of Sun Tzu’s Art of War — Attack While the Enemy Feasts. While everyone was getting there Christmas on, BAM! Out of nowhere he strikes and appoints long time crony Roland Burris.

CNN’s Political Ticker called it “racial chicken” in which each party rushes the other aggressively until one backs down - the chicken. That’s a good analogy. I was sure Harry Reid was going to cave. On Meet the Press, he named practically every black person who knows and told America how much he loves black people. Although, that kind of behavior often precedes some racially antagonistic behavior a la: “I’m not a racist but…” I really thought he was going to break out some bongos and sing Day-O! or do a breakdance routine for realz. I’m telling you, David Gregory NEEDS to start dancing with his guests. Here’s the clip I’m talking about:

Chris Bowers at Open Left had this to say:

Harry Reid was on Meet the Press this morning and, in regards to the Roland Burris situation, actually broke some real news on the program. This includes denying a report from yesterday that he urged Blagojevich not to appoint any of three leading Illinois African-American politicians to Obama’s vacant seat. No transcript yet, so here is the AP

* Reid also denies telling Blagojevich that appointing three African-American lawmakers - Reps. Jesse Jackson Jr. and Danny Davis or state lawmaker Emil Jones - would be unacceptable. He says Blagojevich is “making all this up.”Additionally, Reid pushed back against Bobby Rush’s charge that Burris should be seated because there are no African-Americans in the Senate, by pointing out that Rush did not support Barack Obama in the 2004 Illinois Senate primary when there were also no African-Americans in the Senate. Zing!

Actually I think this is a classic Uncle Clarence Thomas maneuver — select a quasi-qualified or qualified enough black stooge, insert into office, call everyone who opposes stooge’s entrance to power racist, lather, rinse.

Burris may have an ego the size of all creation, but he does have a long line of achievements. Blago was smart to try and create an ally in a powerful place. Yet, the Senate would be smart not to admit Burris. His career is indeed admirable — He was the first African American to be elected to a statewide office in the state of Illinois, and has run for Senate and Governor several times, including a 2002 run supported by Barack Obama). Blago’s alleged crimes inevitably taint Burris and would leave him weak as our only black leader in the Senate. African Americans deserve better than this and probably so does Burris.

JJP poster Melinda sent pictures of her Inauguration Tree.

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Congratulations to Senator Al Franken. From the Minneapolis Star-Tribune:

DFLer Al Franken’s 225-vote lead in the marathon U.S. Senate recount was unanimously certified Monday by the state Canvassing Board, prompting attorneys for Republican Norm Coleman to immediately declare that they will challenge the results in court.

In a brief statement outside his Minneapolis townhouse, Franken said he was humbled and proud to be “the next senator from Minnesota,” even as he acknowledged that the legal wrangling probably isn’t over.

Funny how those ReThugs like to run to court when they lose.  It’s the reason we got Dubya the FIRST TIME.  And rather than seat two Senators to represent the state, Coleman would rather gum up the works with lawsuits:

With Coleman’s Senate term officially ended and no one yet positioned to take the seat, Minnesota is left with a single senator just as Congress is expected to grapple with the nation’s financial meltdown. Congress convenes today.

The Coleman campaign’s last hope to postpone the board’s action had crumbled earlier Monday when the Minnesota Supreme Court rejected its petition to order the review of 654 rejected absentee ballots that the campaign said appeared to be validly cast.

Oh, and on the heels of my post regarding the outgoing POTUS, it appears the GOP finally took its collective head out of its anal orifice and admitted to the truth about their POTUS’ starting a war that was unnecessary:

The Chairman of the Republican National Committee, Mike Duncan, said President Bush’s early prosecution of the Iraq war was his biggest failure in two terms in office.

“I think we failed in the way that, originally, we were prosecuting the war,” Duncan said at a debate with five rivals for the chairmanship. The candidates were asked by Americans for Tax Reform’s Grover Norquist to name Bush’s “biggest mistake.”

No SHYT.  And here’s Mike Steele, who wants the job as RNC Chair, trying to go gangsta.  He’d best quit that nonsense, cause he’s beginning to sound too much like a “flaming” liberal (LOL):

Other candidates cited the bailout and taxes and spending. Former Maryland Lieutenant Governor Michael Steele cited the “failure to communicate on the war, Katrina, the bailout.”

Looks like errybody trying to chime in on how Bush Effed-Up for eight years, but to me, they would have acted like real Field Negroes and told the truth like Paul O’Neill tried to do back in 2002 with the tax cuts, if they were THAT UPSET or disagreed with Bush.  Their silence condoned this shyt and trying to blame Bush while he’s heading out the door isn’t even House Negro behavior - more like Yellow-Bellied Cowards’ behavior.

The first working day of the New Year.  Roland Burris considers himself a United States Senator now; Al Franken won his seat but can’t take it because Norm Coleman doesn’t know when to quit, and the GOP is bailing on Bush faster than the band on the Titanic.

Looks like 2009 will be a real BARN BURNER.  On ALL COUNTS.

Thanks to JJP reader -blksista - for this hat tip.

This coming Tuesday, January 6th, on PBS, Frontline will air a documentary called ” The Old Man and the Storm”.

Background:

Six months after Hurricane Katrina slammed into New Orleans, producer June Cross came across 82-year-old Herbert Gettridge working alone on his home in the lower Ninth Ward, a neighborhood devastated when the levees broke in August 2005. Over the next two years, Cross would document the story of the extended Gettridge clan–an African-American family with deep roots in New Orleans–as they struggled to rebuild their homes and their lives. Their efforts would be deeply impacted by larger decisions about urban planning, public health, and the insurance industry, by the decisions of policymakers about federal funding for rebuilding the Gulf, and state and city plans for dispersing those monies. The moving personal story of Mr. Gettridge and his family reveals the human cost of this tragedy, the continued inadequacies of government’s response in the aftermath of Katrina, and how race, class, and politics have affected the attempts to rebuild this American city.

Here is the link to the PBS site for more information.

The Evening Open Thread.

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And continue to have a peaceful day.

We’ve thanked them big time behind the scenes, but I wanted to let it publicly be known that Jill and I are so grateful to CPL and rikyrah for seriously holding it down during the holidays. The past two weeks have been my longest sustained period of non blogging, and my mind and body needed it. Jill, I and indeed the entire JJP fam are fortunate to have enough quality people on the team to keep things moving.

So, just to make it super clear, THANK YOU BOTH!

(also, i know all the tags disappeared a few weeks ago. very sorry about that. I’ll be digging into this issue over the coming days along with digging out of my inbox).

What’s good fam? I’m back! Missed all of you a lot. The Daily Beast (a Tina Brown production) requested a piece on my Sidwell experience which went up today. It’s focused on advice to the Obama parents based on some of what I’ve share with yall already.

As the first daughters begin classes at Sidwell Friends, the author reflects on his time as one of its few black students.

Dear President-elect and Mrs. Obama,

You’ve been there. Princeton. Columbia. Harvard Law. The white-shoe law firm of Sidley Austin. The US Senate. You know what it’s like to be that raisin in the milk, the rare black face at an elite institution.

As your daughters come of age at the top prep school in our nation’s capital, they will likely face the same raisin-in-the-milk trials and awkwardness with which you are likely familiar and I most certainly am; I attended the same school, Sidwell Friends, for six years, graduating in 1995.

There are some important differences between my Sidwell experience and what your daughters will face, of course.

Continue here to read the piece in full. This is just part of the story, of course. There will be more to come here on JJP from me and Jill.

President-Elect Barack Obama leaves his home of 25 years to go to Washington. He is on a military plane for the first time as President-Elect. January 20, 2009 after 12 pm, when he boards that plane, it will become Air Force One. Look at the Presidential Seal on the door.- Yes, this is one of those goosebump moments we discussed right after the election.

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Truly, it has been a painful eight years of watching this buffoon representing this country and running it to shyt.  From the AP:

For eight years, the nation has been led by a guy who relaxes by clearing brush in scorching heat and taking breakneck bike rides through the woods. He dishes out nicknames to world leaders, and even gave the German chancellor an impromptu, perhaps unwelcome, neck rub. He’s annoyed when kept waiting and sticks relentlessly to routine. He stays optimistic in even the most dire circumstances, but readily tears up in public. He has little use for looking within himself, and only lately has done much looking back.

Bush’s style and temperament are as much his legacy as his decisions. Policy shapes lives, but personality creates indelible memories — positive and negative.

Call it distinctly Bush.

I’d rather call it what it IS - Bullshyt.  And who better than the King of the Bullshytters?  Even eating is looking like he’s in elementary school:

Even eating is approached with sheer purpose.

Bush wants his lunch ready when he is, and wolfs it down. His tastes are clear: maybe a peanut butter and honey sandwich, a BLT, or a burger. Former White House executive chef Walter Scheib learned from Bush never to serve a grilled cheese sandwich unless it came with a side of French’s yellow mustard.

Let me ask this: Who the hell messes up a grilled cheese with MUSTARD?

Okay, I know many of us have weird eating habits and I confess; mine is eating a chilled Snicker bar along with a banana (I’ll also confess to french fries with melted cheese on it and not that Cheeze Whiz they put on them these days.  No wonder I have high sugar I’m trying to get under control these days, LOL).

I had a second career as a substance abuse counselor for pregnant women wanting to get clean before they gave birth.  If I were to describe the above rigidity of Bush’s eating habits, they would probably ask me: “Is he still using?  He sounds like a dry drunk.”

Dr. Justin Frank in his book, “Bush On The Couch” basically stated that only a person who has given up the substance they were abusing, but has not entered into treatment or rehab, has merely substituted one addiction with another in order to maintain a sense of control.

No matter whatever Bush’s legacy is - all I know it’s going to be a damned painful one, and I can’t wait until we see him flying the hell out of DC for the last time.

From the AP:

WASHINGTON – Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine is set to become the next chairman of the Democratic Party.

Two Democratic officials said Sunday that President-elect Barack Obama has chosen the governor to take over the Democratic National Committee.

The officials spoke to The Associated Press on a condition of anonymity because the decision had not yet been officially announced. The Washington Post first reported the selection Sunday on its Web site.

Kaine plans to work at the party part-time until 2010, when his term as governor is up and he can take over the DNC full-time.

Current DNC chairman Howard Dean plans to step down Jan. 21, the day after Obama’s inauguration.

I like Tim Kaine - he’s the current governor of my state; but having said that, he has some tall boots to fill that’s being left by Howard Dean.  I hope Governor Kaine sticks with the formula that Dean crafted that led to the Democrats taking back both Houses of Congress and finally giving them the Presidency after almost 20 years.

However, the fact that former DNC Chair Terry McAuliffe is planning to run when Kaine’s term is up in 2010 is giving me indigestion.  Y’all saw his track record as DNC Chair - what is on it to inspire confidence that he will be a better governor than he was a DNC Chair?

A former DNC chairman, Terry McAuliffe, said Saturday he intends to run for governor of Virginia. In a video posted on his Web site, McAuliffe said he will make his intention to run official on Wednesday as part of a weeklong campaign kickoff.

McAuliffe faces two other Democrats who have been active for nearly a year in an already contentious nomination fight to succeed Kaine. State Sen. Creigh Deeds narrowly lost the attorney general’s race in 2005, and former House Democratic Caucus chairman Brian Moran is also in the race.

McAuliffe faces some stiff competition for the Democratic nomination - mainly from Moran, who, as far as I can tell, is pretty popular in the Commonwealth.  I’m still trying to catch up on Virginia politics, now that I live here.

What say you, JJP Readers, about the Kaine pick for DNC Chair?  Discuss and thread, please.

The Evening Open Thread.

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Drop those links. Engage in debate. Give us trivia and gossip too.

And continue to have a peaceful day.

(North Carolina, following the death of Madelyn Dunham.)

We’ve been discussing over the past week, the appointment of Roland Burris to the U.S. Senate by Gov. Blago.

Friday, it was revealed that Senator Harry Reid had his nose all up in Illinois Politics, deeming 3 Black possible candidates - Danny Davis, Emil Jones and Jesse Jackson, Jr. - ‘Unelectable’.

I have written in this post HERE, why I thought this wasn’t about anyone BUT Jesse Jackson, Jr.

Here is Harry Reid on MTP.

I have always thought the ‘ electability’ argument was bogus from the get go.

IF Jesse Jackson, Jr. wasn’t strong enough to defend himself as a sitting United States Senator, in a Democratic Primary in 2010, then so be it.

I have always believed that there would be a Democratic Primary in 2010. And whatever candidate emerged as the victor would be in good shape for the General Election, because the GOP bench is still weak in Illinois, and I don’t see it gaining that much strength by 2010.

Our poster NMP said:

This is real trouble for Democrats! True enough Bobby Rush’s recent statements were over the top and too heavy handed, but he wasn’t lying about the hypocrisy of white Democrats. This is some Dixicrat shit! It’s one thing to oppose a racial appointment, but it’s a whole different matter to block African Americans from appointment. This is a George Wallace move. Reid all but stood in the doorway of the Capital. I’ve said it a million times before, but it deserves to be said a million more times. The Democratic Party is a plantation party and Black folks have been far too willing to enslave themselves to it. Whether it’s the Democratic political establishment or the so-called progressive arm of the Party, Black folks, whom they depend on, are not well represented in the leadership ranks. They talk at us, down to us or dismiss us and every four years come up with excuse-after-excuse as to why it’s not political prudent to run African American candidates statewide.

I agree with this. This is the same old BS that Black folk hear all the time about WHY they can’t be considered for statewide office. Instead of the STATE Democratic Party getting BEHIND Black candidates, they decide from ‘ oh high’ that ‘these Blacks cannot be elected. ‘

Neither Carol Moseley Braun or Barack Obama was the ‘Machine’ candidate. They were ‘unelectable’ outsiders from CHICAGO no less, who won the nominations.

And, about the ‘ unelectability’ of Jesse Jackson, Jr.

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