http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0310/34239.html
Members of the Congressional Black Caucus are headed to the White House for a meeting on jobs Thursday, and they’ll have a few words to say about how President Barack Obama is doing his.
The 43-member caucus is fighting through one of the most difficult periods in its 39-year history, and some members and aides said they’re getting far too little support from the nation’s first black president — a man they once believed would be their strongest champion.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-Mich.) told POLITICO that White House officials are “not listening” to black lawmakers.
Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-Fla.) said “there’s not enough attention to poor people.”
And Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.) said: “While I respect President Obama, delivering victories for his political future should be the least of our worries on Capitol Hill.”
Aides to CBC members said tensions between black lawmakers and the White House have risen in recent months as the caucus has tried to address the extraordinarily high unemployment rate among African-Americans, while navigating a succession of ethical issues — including the ethics committee ruling that cost CBC member Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) his chairmanship of the Ways and Means Committee last week.
Privately, lawmakers and aides rattle off a series of grievances with the White House — and particularly with chief of staff Rahm Emanuel and senior aide Valerie Jarrett.
A CBC aide said that Jarrett has canceled lunch plans with the caucus eight times and that her office is slow to return calls and pays more attention to longtime supporters than to senior CBC members.
A White House aide said Jarrett is not the White House point person for the CBC but has met with members on several occasions. Jarrett also visited CBC Chairman Barbara Lee’s district two weeks ago and did several events, according to the aide.
Caucus members were outraged after Jarrett called Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) last summer and pushed him to support the president’s agenda by voting to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The conversation quickly grew heated and ended with both parties feeling frustrated, according to a CBC aide. Obama himself immediately called back to ask why Ellison was giving Jarrett such a hard time, the aide said.
Several months later, Conyers said Obama called and accused him of “demeaning” him by criticizing White House polices on health care and Afghanistan.
That report didn’t sit well with many African-American lawmakers, aides and lobbyists, who revere Conyers as an elder statesman.
“Conyers has been in Congress longer than Barack Obama could spell,” said a black strategist close to both the White House and Congress. “If he’s making a complaint, it’s a shot across the bow, and you might want to pay attention to that.”
CBC members and aides felt slighted when civil rights leaders the Rev. Al Sharpton, Marc Morial and Benjamin Jealous got a White House meeting on jobs before they did — despite the fact that the CBC had been requesting such a meeting. And White House efforts to push embattled New York Gov. David Paterson out of the gubernatorial race rubbed some CBC members the wrong way.
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12 responses to “From Politico – Obama “not Listening” (to Black Lawmakers)”
First and most obvious: Obama cannot risk the perception that he has a "black agenda", which would polarize supporters and hand raw meat to his opponents.
Second, who IS the point person at WH for CBC? and how is it acceptable that Jarrett keeps making and then breaking appointments? If that's not intended as a signal, then Obama has some 'splaining to do.
Finally, the potential for civil unrest is all too real. Economic downturns disproportionately punish people of color, and they devastate the population of young black males, who are always the highest unemployed by percentage anyway.
In other words, another generation of neglected young black men, who end up not contributing to society and in many cases become a drain on society, all too often leaving children without fathers.
And it seems that rather than explore the sociological root causes of these inequities, we are much more inclined to blame those who cannot find their way.
Which only invites us to repeat this miserable history.
John, I still want a comment on the convicted felon wife?
JD, exactly. I guess he was too busy taking shots at the POTUS to attend his wife's sentencing. In the same building his office is in. *Kanye shrug*
The fact that Conyers should be laying low and praying that his horrible, classless shrew of a felon/wife doesn't damage his credibility aside, the real point here is that Barack Obama is NOT the President of Black America. In fact, honestly, a lot of the people "taking him to task" were pro-Hillary. The man runs the WHOLE country. He never made any promises to come in and be the Messiah for Black people. WE need to make some changes on our own and stop waiting for someone else to do it!!!! It's truly sickening to me that the crabs in a barrel mentality is even applied to the leader of the free world.
Moi.
He's not the president of "Gay and Lesbian America" but then Senator Obama campaigned to readdress Don't Ask Don't Tell if elected.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/27/obama-wi…
He's not president of "Latino America" but then Senator Obama campaigned to readdress the issue of legal and illegal immigration in a manner more conciliatory than Republicans. In fact, he just met with the Hispanic Caucus to SPECIFICALLY address "Hispanic Issues."
http://www.favstocks.com/readout-of-president-oba…
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/12/us/politics/12i…
He's not president of any union but received the endorsement of unions provided he governed in a way consistent with the interests of unions.
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/09/oba…
He's not the president of "Jewish America" but has gone back to the table for the Middle East peace process thanks in part to the Pro-Israeli Lobby.
http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/55323-…
He's not the president of "Environmentalist America" but RELUCTANTLY went to Copenhagen in 2009 to the climate conference.
http://blogs.wsj.com/environmentalcapital/2009/12…
He's not the president of people without medical coverage..but. You get the point.
Yes, he runs the whole country, but only African-Americans supported him to the tune of 90+ percent. Nobody is asking him to be the Messiah, but by all means do we have the right to measure his attentiveness to the base that supports him the most.
It's a fallacy to think that critique of the President is somehow inappropriate or unreasonable. Nobody is looking for a handout, but the CBC represents in many cases large constituencies of people of color, disproportionately impacted by the economic recession. His responsibility is equal in nature. Wall Street AND Main Street AND those living ON the street. As a member of Congress, he/she reflects the constituency needs and it is reasonable to ask for the same as others. If fact, it is their JOB to serve as an advocate for the particular needs of their constituency. Otherwise, they shouldn't be in office.
Do you think 90+ percent of any constituency votes anyone in office without the expectation that the candidate is squarely in line with the interests of the constituency (other than African-Americans that is)?
What we have to remember – we have a President that listens. He's a thinker. He is not a "knee jerk" responder!
The challenge with our current Black "LEADERSHIP" is they have not done their jobs. We need to ask them – what are they doing to make sure that money released to their district is being used to assist our local communities? What are they doing that their districts get their fair share? Some of them have been in office so long, they have forgotten why we elected them.
In my opinion, it's not fair to shift their inability to do their jobs onto the President. They know how the game is played, because they have been playing it for a long time. They truly don't understand the position God has created for them in this season. They have the opportunity to expand what happens for People of Color, and all they want to do is sit back and complain.
Let's get Health Reform, with a Public Option or Medicare for all or a Single Payer Plan, passed through both the House and the Senate. This would help, not only People of Color, but all of America. Can you imagine the number of clinics and jobs that will be created in the local communities! We would have the opportunity to provide for our families and be healthier communities.
Let's get the Job Stimulus Plan Passed so all Americans can get back to work. This would provide "Green" job training and employment opportunities for our communities. Again, providing an opportunity for our communities to provide for their families.
Let's support a "Green" envirnoment that will reduce a number of the health challenges our communities struggle with. Again, providing opportunities for our communities to provide for their families.
Let's get behind some actions that will help us create and provide an opportunity for our communities to prosper and develop into communities conducive for growth and a healthy envirnoment.
Let us hold our "elected officials" responsible and accountable for their actions or inactions.
We may continue to "Holler" about black this, white that. However, the bottom line is – we need to stop fighting and start working together to assist our President in getting the campaign commitments done.
Mo' is it possible to do some research and post on the fact that if they could get through the grid lock in the Senate, almost 300 bills would have gone to the President's desk for signing. Which would have allowed the President to deliever on a number of his campagin promises.
This is why I am upset with our "Leadership". They know the games that are being played and they want to play games too!
It's really more about the rich/poor dynamic, the have/have-not dynamic.
It's just that the lower you go on that scale, the more the inequities tilt toward people of color. A rising tide may lift all boats, but most whites manage to jump off a sinking boat before it sinks.
So the issue would seem to be that we finally have a President who should be completely in touch with that dynamic, and he simply has not done enough to make sure the boat doesn't sink. He seems more interested in handing out life preservers, except that we all know there aren't enough of them.
The poor are an ineffective voting bloc, which is why John Edwards did not win the Democrat primary.
If its true that the measure of a society is how well or poorly we treat the least well off, then our grades are very low.
And perhaps it's not up to Obama to right every wrong, but half his job is persuasion. In other words, the American President sets a clear tone for what kind of society we are.
This President has attempted to set a tone, but it seems to me his gaze is more outward than inward. He seems more concerned with what others think of us than with what we think of ourselves.
I do not believe that he feels our pain.
We must have a jobs program. Unemployment will be high for years, there are all sorts of serious public works projects that need doing, and far too many of us are hanging on by a thread.
We need to put 5 million people to work via such projects, probably for the next five years, and then we can allow the private sector to start absorbing them.
And if it's about the deficit, well, we found the money to bail out the fat cats and the oligarchs, we found the money to keep those megamillion dollar bonuses rolling on Wall Street.
Let's send some of that money to my street, and your street, and his street, and her street.
And we don't need a check in the mailbox: We need work. We need training. We need dignity and a sense of accomplishment. We need a hand up, not a hand-out (h/t Rev. Jackson).
I am incensed that this country bumbles along as though the least well off among us will find a way to figure things out for themselves.
The Washington D.C. shelters are overflowing with homeless families.
Please, Mr. President, suggest to them how they might find their way out of this mess.
Beautifully stated Walt. Beautiful.
Morris,
I appreciate that.
I also mean what I say, and I go back to pre-election and my turn on Tavis' show when I said that Obama would be presiding over change that he could not have anticipated, and we would have to push him to act. I was concerned even then about the massive number of unemployed that had not happened yet, but was clearly coming.
And as I imagine this country five years from now, first with a meaningful jobs program and then without, I get two distinct and different visions, and one of them scares the daylights out of me.
I also remember Tavis chiding me for daring to naively suggest that we could get Obama to actually listen to us…
🙂
[…] wrote the following over at the Mo’Kelly blog, and I thought it made sense to post it […]
"The poor are an ineffective voting bloc, which is why John Edwards did not win the Democrat primary."
To the Heart of the matter.
[…] Obama and his overall effectiveness in office. As primer material, you should be familiar with the recent dialogue at the Mo’Kelly blog, as well as this morning’s New York Times Magazine piece on Rahm […]