A hardcore handful of Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) members who last week embraced George Bush's Iraq occupation policies, were joined by six others in support of a phony "compromise" over the administration's secret wiretapping of citizens. No sooner was the bill passed than presumed Democratic standard bearer Barack Obama broke a promise, made last year, to filibuster the legislation on the Senate side of Capitol Hill.
Obama continues his increasingly rightward orientation, in evidence well before the primary season ended. He recently cut a campaign commercial for a reactionary white Georgia congressman who faces a progressive Black primary election challenger.
Five CBC members were among 80 Democrats voting to give Bush virtually everything he wanted in Iraq and Afghanistan funding: $162 billion dollars - the largest war-spending measure yet - with no time lines for withdrawal. Despite sweeteners embedded in the bill, such as extended benefits for the unemployed and tuition-free state college education for veterans, Democrats opposed the measure by nearly two-to-one. Less than one-eighth of the Black Caucus bowed to Bush's war funding wishes. They are:
Sanford Bishop (GA)
Corrine Brown (FL)
James Clyburn (SC)
Artur Davis (AL)
David Scott (GA)
The same five Members were among 11 CBCers that backed Democratic leadership's "compromise" bill on White House spying on citizens. The legislation retroactively immunizes from civil action U.S. telecommunications corporations that collaborated with Bush's surveillance program. Speaker Nancy Pelosi managed to persuade 105 Democrats - a rump minority - to join her in giving the White House "a better deal than they even had hoped to get," as Republican Sen. Kit Bond put it. The Pelosi-backed bill actually expands government secret surveillance powers while throwing out citizen suits against telephone companies that facilitated warrantless wiretaps. The following CBC members voted with Republicans to amend the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA):
Sanford Bishop (GA)
Corrine Brown (FL)
G.K. Butterfield (NC)
Emanuel Cleaver (MO)
James Clyburn (SC)
Artur Davis (AL)
Al Green (TX)
Alcee Hastings (FL)
Gregory Meeks (NY)
David Scott (GA)
Bennie Thompson (MS)
On both the FISA and war funding votes, Black lawmakers resisted the Republicans (and their own leadership) in far greater proportion than non-Black Democrats. The 27 CBC Members that voted against both measures are:
Julia Carson (IN)
Yvette Clarke (NY)
William "Lacy" Clay
John Conyers (MI)
Elijah Cummings (MD)
Danny Davis (IL)
Donna Edwards (MD)
Keith Ellison (MN)
Chaka Fattah (PA)
Jesse Jackson (IL)
Jackson-Lee (TX)
William Jefferson (LA)
Hank Johnson (GA)
Eddie Bernice Johnson (TX)
Stephanie Tubbs Jones (OH)
Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick (MI)
Barbara Lee (CA)
John Lewis (GA)
Kendrick Meek (FL)
Gwen Moore (WI)
Donald Payne (NJ)
Charles Rangel (NY)
Bobby Scott (VA)
Edolphus Towns (NY)
Maxine Waters (CA)
Diane Watson (CA)
Mel Watt (NC)
Chicago Rep. Bobby Rush was absent for both votes.
Barack Obama announced he would be absent from the ranks of those who planned to oppose Senate passage of the FISA surveillance bill. Obama maintained silence until after the so-called "compromise" passed the House, then reversed his previous opposition.
"[G]iven the legitimate threats we face," said Obama, "providing effective intelligence collection tools with appropriate safeguards is too important to delay. So I support the compromise, but do so with a firm pledge that as President, I will carefully monitor the program, review the report by the Inspectors General, and work with the Congress to take any additional steps I deem necessary to protect the lives - and the liberty - of the American people."
Presumably, Obama's "firm pledge" is firmer than his pledge of last October, when he vowed to lead a filibuster against the same bill.
Obama Backs White Blue Dog over Progressive Black Woman
It appears there is no white Democrat so far to the Right that Obama will not lend him support - even in a race against a progressive Black challenger. Obama recently cut a campaign radio commercial for U.S. Rep. John Barrow (D-GA), a "Bush Democrat" if there ever was one. Barrow, a Blue Dog Democrat whose fulsome praise for Bush should be an embarrassment to his party, faces challenger Regina Thomas, a state lawmaker from Savannah, in a district where Blacks make up 70 percent of Democratic primary voters. Thomas has no money, but she is backed by progressive bloggers like Matt Stoller of Open Left, who says: "I don't know what kind of game Obama is playing, but using his remarkable brand to protect conservative Democrats is a move reminiscent of Nancy Pelosi endorsing Al Wynn" - the corporate-backed incumbent defeated by progressive challenger Donna Edwards, in Maryland, this year.
The lesson seems clear: Obama is not only moving steadily to the Right; he is showing he prefers white, rightwing company at every step along the way.
CBC Monitor spokesperson Leutisha Stills can be contacted at LeutishaStills@hotmail.com.
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Dr. Gerald Horne is an author and historian who currently holds the John J. and Rebecca Moores Chair of History and African American Studies at the University of Houston.
