NAACP: "He's coming today because of the midterm elections"

[kurth]

Bush woos NAACP
By Mark Silva, Washington Bureau
Published July 20, 2006, 10:23 AM CDT

WASHINGTON -- President Bush, making his first personal appearance as president before the NAACP, promised today to sign a renewal of the Voting Rights Act. But it is the renewal of this Republican president's own frayed relations with the African-American community that weighs on the White House's mind.

Bush, who courted the traditionally Democratic black vote during his first campaign for president in 2000—and eagerly addressed the NAACP convention that year—has turned down invitations to return for five consecutive years. White House officials have sometimes cited "scheduling conflicts,'' but it actually is the political conflict between Bush and the outspoken and highly critical leaders of the NAACP that kept Bush away until today.

And today, some say they suspect another political motive in the president's reappearance at the annual convention of the nation's oldest and largest civil rights organization, meeting in a wide, chilly hall of the Washington Convention Center.

"He came when he ran for office,'' said Shirley Jordan of Philadelphia, who serves as state secretary for the NAACP in Pennsylvania, "and he's coming today because of the midterm elections.''

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/custom/newsroom/chi-060720bush-naacp,0,43978.story?coll=chi-homepagepromo440-fea

[ourbluenation]

1. duh. won't work though....

[babylonsister]

2. Ms. Jordan has that right; entirely self-serving, nothing more or less. nt

[Cha]

4. bush must think everyone

is as dumb as he is..."heh heh, I really pulled one on them, heh, heh, shit!"

[Norquist Nemesis]

3. Appears he invited himself to the NAACP

after snubbing their invitations for five years.

[kurth]

7. Bush sics IRS on NAACP:

http://www.ombwatch.org/article/articleview/2700/1/3?TopicID=2

IRS Announcement of Investigations Into Charities' Political Activities

Prior to the November 2004 election, the IRS initiated an audit of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), based on criticism of President Bush's policies. The NAACP claims the audit is politically motivated...

IRS documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act show seven Republican members of Congress filed complaints with the IRS in 2004, claiming the NAACP engaged in partisan electioneering...

[Norquist Nemesis]

8. There's no doubt it was politically motivated

It's also not a coincidence that Bush crashes their conference after their top dog (who was critical of him) resigned. Tony Snow suggests the new guy and Bush are buddies from way back!

[Human Torch]

5. Maybe Ms. Jordan saw this MSNBC article:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x2729861

:patriot:

[rubberducky]

6. After almost 6years

can anyone ever believe anything that he says? This was SO such a photo/media op.

[ComerPerro]

9. He sounded drunk in that speech.

[jaysunb]

10. This is Bullshit !

Bush, who courted the traditionally Democratic black vote during his first campaign for president in 2000—and eagerly addressed the NAACP convention that year—has turned down invitations to return for five consecutive years. White House officials have sometimes cited "scheduling conflicts,'' but it actually is the political conflict between Bush and the outspoken and highly critical leaders of the NAACP that kept Bush away until today.


Bush has refused to address this group as another appeasement to his racist base, plain and simple. We (blacks) are not stupid. :evilfrown:

[Sleepless In NY]

11. So why didn't they uninvite him?

He hasn't shown up for 5 years, and then of course there was Katrina. I just can't imagine after that fiaso, that the NAACP would allow themselves to be used like that.

[jaysunb]

13. I suspect they left the standing

invitation open, and his PR team fooled everybody. Further, Bruce Gordon is a corporate republican.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search

Bruce S. Gordon on the cover of Crisis magazine.

Bruce Scott Gordon is an African American business executive, selected in June 2005 to head the NAACP, a major American civil rights organization.

Born in Camden, New Jersey, Gordon's parents were both active in the civil rights movement. A 1968 graduate of Gettysburg College, where he was a member of Tau Kappa Epsilon Fraternity, and a 1988 Master's degree in Management (M.B.A.) graduate of the Sloan Fellows program of the MIT Sloan School of Management, Gordon's professional career began at Bell of Pennsylvania, where he rose in corporate management to become the head of the retail markets division of Verizon upon his retirement in December 2003. Other Verizon executives have credited him with helping to promote diversity and a corporate culture based on customer serivce at the telecom company.

Among other professional activities, Gordon sits on the boards of the Alvin Ailey Dance Foundation, Office Depot, and Tyco International. Black Enterprise magazine named him executive of the year in 1998; Fortune magazine named him one of its 50 most powerful black executives in 2002.

Gordon's selection as NAACP president on 25 June 2005 was widely regarded as unusual -- most of the organization's past presidents have been prominent figures in politics, religion, or the civil rights movement before holding the office. The only candidate seriously considered by the organization's board, he was approved by a unanimous vote and was confirmed at the July 2005 NAACP convention. He succeeded Kweisi Mfume, who resigned his post as NAACP president in late 2004.

President George W. Bush made his first appearance at the NAACP on July 20, 2006, half-way through his second term <1>. After having snubbed the organization for most of his presidency, it was Gordon's "moderate" political views that led Bush to acquiesce to the appearance, according to White House spokesman Tony Snow.

[me b zola]

12. I like how the article ended:

"The Republicans are very good at coming up with phony issues,'' Fitchett said from his seat near the front rows today. "Stem-cell research is a phony issue. Flag-burning is a phony issue. Reading the Bible in school is a phony issue. The real issues are health care, ending the war… The real issue is also a free America.''

Rev Fitchett :thumbsup:

[maveric56]

14. African Americans are the smartest voters in the nation.

They can smell the bullshit.

[kentuck]

15. Bingo !

That's exactly why he went. It all goes back to the meeting he had with Republicans running for re-election just a few weeks ago. He insisted that they stick with him and he would pull them thru the next election. But what about your low polls, they asked? Don't worry. Karl is working full time and we will get those numbers up by November. If you desert us, you stand a better chance of losing in the fall, they were told. So now, he's pulling out all the stops - even going to a NAACP meeting. Desperation is in the air.

[beltanefauve]

16. REVISIONIST HISTORY ALERT!!!

Sorry for yelling, but this is serious!

"And I understand that a lot of African-Americans distrust my political party,'' the president said, drawing perhaps the loudest applause of his morning. "I consider it a tragedy that the party of Abraham Lincoln let go of its historical ties with the African-American community.''

But check this out:http://www.ihr.org/jhr/v13/v13n5p-4_Morgan.html

"If all earthly power were given me," said Lincoln in a speech delivered in Peoria, Illinois, on October 16, 1854, "I should not know what to do, as to the existing institution . My first impulse would be to free all the slaves, and send them to Liberia, to their own native land." After acknowledging that this plan's "sudden execution is impossible," he asked whether freed blacks should be made "politically and socially our equals?" "My own feelings will not admit of this," he said, "and if mine would, we well know that those of the great mass of white people will not ... We can not, then, make them equals."

and this:

Between late August and mid-October, 1858, Lincoln and Douglas travelled together around the state to confront each other in seven historic debates. On August 21, before a crowd of 10,000 at Ottawa, Lincoln declared:

"I have no purpose directly or indirectly to interfere with the institution of slavery in the states where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so."

He continued:

"I have no purpose to introduce political and social equality between the white and black races. There is physical difference between the two which, in my judgment, will probably forever forbid their living together upon the footing of perfect equality, and inasmuch as it becomes a necessity that there must be a difference, I, as well as Judge Douglas, am in favor of the race to which I belong having the superior position."

Many people accepted the rumors spread by Douglas supporters that Lincoln favored social equality of the races. Before the start of the September 18 debate at Charleston, Illinois, an elderly man approached Lincoln in a hotel and asked him if the stories were true. Recounting the encounter later before a crowd of 15,000, Lincoln declared:

" will say then that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races;am not nor ever have been in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people.

So much for the "Party of Lincoln" and their historical ties to the African-American community!

[kurth]

17. Thanks for reminder. Emancipation wasn't as much a humanitarian move

as a political one, i.e. to keep the border states in the Union. The historical record is very clear on how Lincoln viewed blacks.