I got a funny e-mail today. It was a press release from the Republican Party of Virginia. Here it is, reproduced in whole:
The Chairman of the Democrat National Committee (DNC), Howard Dean, said at a recent meeting of the Democrat Black Caucus, “You think the Republicans could get this many people of color in a single room? Only if they had the hotel staff in here.”
Today, Kate Obenshain Griffin, Chairman of the Republican Party of Virginia, called on Lieutenant Governor Tim Kaine to tell Virginians whether he supports the racially insensitive remarks made by the DNC Chairman, especially given the recent press reports of the $5 million the DNC plans to provide the Kaine campaign:
“As the Democrat Party is overtaken by the national leftist liberal establishment, their policies of anger and pessimism are becoming clear. The intolerable remarks made by Howard Dean expose the fact that the Democrat Party takes minorities for granted.
“I call on Lieutenant Governor Tim Kaine to immediately denounce the divisive remarks by the Chairman of his Party. The failure of Tim Kaine to condemn Howard Dean’s remarks can only be interpreted by all Virginians as an explicit endorsement by the Democrat Party of Virginia of such discriminatory beliefs.”
I’m reminded of an old joke: A man, angry, declares “You’re an asshole!” The target of the insult demands an apology. “OK,” says the man, “I’m sorry you’re an asshole.”
It’s a fact: African-Americans are as scarce as hen’s teeth in the Republican Party. I’m sure that Dean’s comment (which only a half dozen news outlets throughout the nation have picked up on, according to Google News) stings Republicans, what with it being, y’know, true.
Just out of curiousity, I headed over to the Republican Party’s website, to view their photo albums. They’ve got ’em broken down into a bunch of sections (“Homeland Security,” “Ken Mehlman,” “Grassroots,” and, weirdly, one special section just for the black folks. (I believe the term for that is “separate but equal.”) Figuring that it would be representative, I opened up a pair of photo albums: Winter Meeting 2004 and Republican War Room — Boston.
Picture after picture after picture. I haven’t seen that many white folks in one place since I went to an L.L. Bean outlet. So I can see why Republicans would be upset. Truth hurts.
But the funny thing here is the attempt to tie Lt. Governor Tim Kaine to Dean. Jerry Kilgore’s campaign is desperate to pretend that Kaine is some extreme leftist. But what with his opposition to abortion and civil unions (which is more conservative than even President Bush, who favors civil unions), that’s just absurd — he’s more conservative than many Democrats, myself included, would care for. So they demand that Kaine renounce the statement of somebody that he doesn’t know and who can’t speak for him. It’s silly.
Well, I have a demand of my own. Before I get to that, though, let’s look back at the June 5, 1995 issue of The Virginian-Pilot, at a story by Margaret Edds, entitled “Hiring Figures Don’t Flatter the Allen Administration”:
About two-thirds of the inmates in the Virginia prison system are African-American.
But at the highest echelon of prison policy-making, the office of the secretary of public safety, the numbers are quite different.
There, the eight-person staff of Secretary Jerry Kilgore is all white.
[…]
Kilgore’s predecessor, O. Randolph Rollins, who served in the Wilder administration, declined to criticize current hiring policies because the office has few employees.
But Rollins said that during much of his tenure, three of his five staff members, including a deputy secretary, were African Americans. He believes a diverse leadership gives government more credibility in serving a diverse public, he said.
”Everybody can’t understand the background of everyone else, and we should not assume that we can,” he said.
I call on former Attorney General Jerry Kilgore to immediately denounce his racially-divisive hiring practices. The failure of Jerry Kilgore to condemn his behavior can only be interpreted by all Virginians as an explicit endorsement by him of such discriminatory practices.
I’m waiting.
So — Kate Obenshain wants to cast a light on Kaine’s ties to a NRA-endorsed gun control opponent and budget balancer? Oh, no! Don’t throw us into that briar patch!
On a side note, she worked with the Virginia Advocate, a U-Va. magazine, at the same time I worked with The Declaration — but we never crossed paths. Guess that makes me black guy who couldn’t manage to share a room with her even when we did share a room.