The Washington Post had a front page article, over the weekend, on the firing of a consultant to the campaign of Democratic candidate for Governor of Maryland, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend (yes. THAT Kennedy). The consultant said that his strategy would be to define the Republican in the race, Congressman Bob Erlich, as "the Nazi that he is."
Townsend's campaign fired the guy, but that's not the problem. The problem is that the Congressman who represents the Maryland suburbs of Washington, DC, Albert Wynn said the guy should be rehired, but that "Perhaps an apology to Mr. Ehrlich is in order."
Perhaps an apology to the American political system is in order.
In one of the many Mullings Home States, Texas, Democratic Senate candidate Ron Kirk decided to sail on a racist tack when the Dallas Morning News reported Kirk said of a potential war in Iraq:
"Look who would be doing the fighting," Mr. Kirk said. "They're disproportionately ethnic; they're disproportionately minority."
"The point is, I would be curious to see if we would go to war without any thought of loss if the first half-million kids to go came from families who made $1 million," Mr. Kirk said.
This approach so shocked Kirk's core of White support in the Dallas Metroplex that he had to issue an apology - three days later:
"I regret the way I stated those concerns and had no intention of offending anyone, particularly those who serve or like my father have served this country," he said.
Perhaps someone should point out to Mr. Kirk that there is no draft; that every single man and woman in uniform - regardless of race - is a volunteer.
Perhaps SOMEONE in the Democratic party structure will step forward and put an end to this new round of racially-charged statements.
Perhaps not.
The interesting thing about these two races is: The campaigns of both Kathleen Kennedy Townsend and Ron Kirk are now stumbling. A recent poll showed Townsend behind Republican Bob Erlich and Kirk is trailing the Republican John Cornyn well outside the margin of error.
Not to be outdone, a Republican organization had to go through the "Oops, We're Sorry" dance last week when GOPAC (which the Mullmeister ran in 1998-99) got caught paying for a radio ad aimed at Black voters which suggested Social Security was, in effect, reverse reparations from Black people to Whites.
The logic of the ad copy is too convoluted to explain, and GOPAC immediately had the ad pulled saying, "We did not know it was going to be run and never intended it to be run."
Perhaps GOPAC would do us the favor of responding to this self-evident point: If that ad was never intended to run, why was it ever written or produced?
By the way, both NAACP Chairman Julian Bond and DNC Chair Terry McAuliffe couldn't get to their speed dialers quickly enough to denounce the GOPAC ad, but both remain disappointingly silent on their fellow Democrats' use of race as a campaign tactic.
This round of racism started with the defeat of Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney in Georgia whose father (a State Representative who was also defeated) said that the political problems which had befallen his daughter were caused by - he spelled this out in an interview - "J-E-W-S."
The widening split in the Democratic coalition between Blacks and Jews drew the attention of none other than Jesse Jackson who, according to the web site "Black Voices" called for a summit between African American and Jewish Leaders.
Perhaps at that meeting Mr. Jackson can explain his 1984 description of Jews as "Hymies" and New York City as "Hymietown."
Perhaps.
On the Secret Decoder Ring page today: Lots of extra reading today. There are links to every single issue referenced including Jesse Jackson. I read so much to prepare for this edition of Mullings, my lips are tired.
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