JUSIPER

 
The Brown and Black Forum

Posted by Sini

This post comes to JUSIPER courtesy of our friend Brian, an exuberant doctoral student in history and member of that rare breed of academics who would also excel at politics.


Iowans got one last look at the Dem 9…er…8 (Gen. Clark was a no-show) last night in the Brown and Black Forum. If you watched NBC's Today show, you saw that Al Sharpton's roast of Howard Dean made it to the No. 1 news story of the day, bumping Paul O'Neil and George W. Bush's war lies to No. 2.

Apparently, if it bleeds it doesn't necessarily lead. But it's apparent that NBC (based on Tim Russert's weekend commentary and Lisa Meyers's hatchet job of "The Dean Tapes") has its own agenda in inserting itself into the contest.

There were worse moments for the Democratic field, however. Here are my Top Five All-Time Desert Island Worst Moments of the Brown and Black Forum.

1. The Sharpton Factor

Okay, we get it. Vermont has a lot of white people.

Here's Sharpton's exchange with Dean:

The Rev: "Do you have a senior member of your cabinet that was black or brown?"

The Doctor: "We had a senior member of my staff on my fifth floor."

The Rev: "No, your cabinet!"

The Doctor: "No, we did not."

The Rev: "Then you need to let me talk to you about race in this country."

Casting aside the ridiculous notion that Al Sharpton needs to lecture anybody on race relations, wouldn't the best response be to ask Sharpton how many whites advise him?

And it's unclear why there was a news peg here. It's not as if Dean had claimed that he had an all-black cabinet? Focusing on Sharpton's grandstanding yet again emphasizes that people inside the Beltway might be the only people who give Sharpton so much credibility. The moment also led the Des Moines Register to lead with the headline: * "Dean Defends His Record On Race."

Unbelievable.

2. The Lieberman Vacuum

When given a chance to ask a question of his fellow Democrats, Joe Lieberman kicked off with a lame joke before wandering into a monologue that discussed finance reform and voting rights.

At this point, somebody should have wondered aloud just what the hell Lieberman is doing up there on that stage. He has nothing to say at all. And he did a nice job of supporting Bush on the O'Neil comments regarding Bush's disengagement with his job. Nice work, Joe. You just might get that cabinet post yet.

3. That Pesky Flag

Edwards, joining the pile-on on Dean's Confederate flag remark, stressed that it is not just offensive to African-Americans, but to "all Americans."

If that's so true, why has the GOP run gubernatorial races stressing such nice but vague issues as "our heritage," or "Southern values," or "our symbol."

There's a problem with the Confederate flag in this country, but the most persistent problem may be that nobody wants to acknowledge that there is a problem.

4. Gephardt's Washington-ness

5% for this, 10% for that. Add it up and it might seem like a policy proposal, but he still looks like the straw man and sounds like the tin man. No courage, no heart. And this is the guy who won Iowa in 1988!

5. The Pack vs. Dean and Braun

Hooray for Carol Mosley-Braun for pointing out that Edwards is being a bit disingenuous by calling Dean a hypocrite when the senator has voted with Bush more than 50% of the time.

But jeez, Edwards responded by saying that of the members of Congress on stage (aside from Kucinich) , he had the fewest votes in support of Bush. Which means that Kerry, Lieberman, Gephardt may have supported the Administration's policies more than 60% of the time.

Yup, at a time when voters complain that there's no apparent difference between the two parties, that's just what we need. Bush-lite.


11:44 AM |