Ashcroft Busted!

Okay, so he wasn't hauled away in handcuffs, but this is just too rich! (Maybe I should have titled it: "Mel Carnahan's Second Round of Vengeance from Beyond the Grave).

US attorney general fined for breaking law. John Ashcroft, the US attorney general, has been fined £21,000 for breaking election laws during his defeat by a dead rival for a seat in the Senate. During his unsuccessful campaign in 2000, America's top lawman illegally accepted £62,700 from a body set up to support a run for the presidency, the Federal Election Commission found. A controversial, deeply religious figure, Mr Ashcroft was standing for re-election as a senator from Missouri. Humiliatingly, he was beaten by an opponent who died in a plane crash before polling day. His rival's widow, Jean Carnahan, was later awarded the seat. One dissenting Democrat member of the FEC protested against the size of the fine, calling it "so low that I do not believe it adequately reflects the severity of the conduct at issue". However, two Republicans on the commission described the offence as "a garden-variety complaint ... blown far out of proportion". ... [Marcus Warren, The Telegraph, December 18, 2003]

Figures that two Republicans would flaunt their complete disregard for the law. A "garden-variety complaint"? While we're hardly talking about capital murder here, we are talking about a crime, committed by no less than a U.S. senatorial candidate-turned-U.S. Attorney General. (If they want to see a truly frivolous complaint, I'll show them a truly frivolous complaint.)

You know what? In the end, it doesn't matter if they fined the SOA, or Ashcroft himself, $1.00 or a million. The fact remains: He broke the law, and he got nailed for it. It's his name that's going to stick in people's minds.


Related articles:

Ashcroft Senate campaign fined for illegal contributions. The Federal Election Commission has fined Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft's unsuccessful 2000 Senate reelection campaign for violating federal election laws by accepting $110,000 in illegal contributions from a committee Ashcroft had established to explore running for president. In documents released Tuesday by the FEC, Garrett M. Lott, treasurer for the two Ashcroft committees, the Spirit of America PAC and Ashcroft 2000, agreed to pay a $37,000 fine for at least four violations of federal campaign law. Lott agreed not to contest the charges. "Spirit of America PAC and Ashcroft 2000, respectively, violated the [law] by making and receiving this excessive contribution. Additionally, Spirit of America PAC and Ashcroft 2000, respectively, violated the [law] by failing to disclose the making or receipt of the excessive contribution," the FEC said in a statement. The FEC vote was 5-1, and the one dissenter sought harsher penalties and tougher findings. The three Republican members of the commission joined two of the Democrats in voting for the penalties. ... [Capitol Hill Blue, December 17, 2003]

Above the Law. Ashcroft participated in a patently phony deal that allowed a political action committee he founded and controlled to transfer a highly valuable mailing list to his campaign committee. The donation of the list -- which cost more than $1.7 million to create -- flaunts campaign contribution limits. Yet a divided FEC just winked at the arrangement, slapped the committees with a small penalty, and let Ashcroft himself off scot-free. This leaves it up to the federal courts to force the FEC to do its job, and the Justice Department should also appoint a special prosecutor to conduct a criminal inquiry. ... [The] FEC conducted an investigation which reveals that the Ashcroft's campaign committee and Spirit of America PAC (SOA), founded and controlled by Ashcroft, constructed a fig leaf of a contract to cloak their illegal transaction. ... To buy that the transaction was legal, you also have to buy that SOA gave the list to Ashcroft, rather than to his campaign committee, and then Ashcroft turned around and donated it to the campaign committee himself. ... The fact that Ashcroft, Oliver and Lott took the pains to create a pseudo-contract shows that they were well aware of the law they were seeking to evade. Yet the FEC is too hamstrung to identify and punish this clear violation. This casts doubt on the agency's ability to enforce campaign finance laws, precisely when the Supreme Court has just approved a major overhaul of the laws in the Bipartisan Campaign Finance Reform Act of 2002. ... [Bonnie Tenneriello, TomPaine.com, December 18, 2003]

Ashcroft Busted! 11:35:20 PM
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Of Course Michael Jackson Was Charged!

What better to knock this off the lead story on the evening news:

9/11 Chair: Attack Was Preventable. For the first time, the chairman of the independent commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks is saying publicly that 9/11 could have and should have been prevented, reports CBS News Correspondent Randall Pinkston. "This is a very, very important part of history and we've got to tell it right," said Thomas Kean. "As you read the report, you're going to have a pretty clear idea what wasn't done and what should have been done," he said. "This was not something that had to happen." Appointed by the Bush administration, Kean, a former Republican governor of New Jersey, is now pointing fingers inside the administration and laying blame. ... [CBS, December 17, 2003]

Oh, and if you really came here for the latest on Jacko, here you go.

Of Course Michael Jackson Was Charged! 5:48:27 PM
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Couch Potatoes Fed Up With Bad Reality TV

It was only a matter of time before Americans grew weary of watching a spoiled, vapid, and inarticulate heir to an impossibly rich and powerful family looking like a complete ass on television week after week -- which is why viewers switched him off and turned to Paris Hilton instead:

Viewers Prefer Hilton Show Over Bush Interview. The Nielsen company that does the television ratings finds that more people watched "The Simple Life" on Fox than watched President George W. Bush's interview with Diane Sawyer on ABC -- just a couple of days after Saddam Hussein was caught. The Bush interview was seen by 11 million people, while the Fox show -- in which the hotel heiress Paris Hilton tries to cope with life in an Arkansas town -- was seen by nearly 12 million. And that's also about the size the audience that watched a CBS drama starring Mark Harmon. ... [Associated Press, December 18, 2003]

Couch Potatoes Fed Up With Bad Reality TV 4:46:10 PM
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Remind Me: Why Won't They Let Us Marry?

Great read -- a must-click:

Some Common Yet Often Unstated Arguments Against Gay Marriage. 1. If same-sex couples were allowed to marry, marriage would no longer be a sure-fire way for people to prove they aren't gay. ... 2. If the civil marriage of same-sex couples is allowed, it will be demonstrated once again (for those Americans who have skipped a Civics class or two) that Church and State are, indeed, separate. ... 3. Same-sex marriage will send a message to straight society that same-sex couples -- despite examples to the contrary offered up by television programs and films like Will & Grace, The Opposite of Sex, The Object of My Affection, Soap, Too Close for Comfort, Three's Company and Threesome -- can be whole, complete, happy people without them. ... [John Kusch, Letters From a Strip of Dirt, December 11, 2003]

Props for the link to the ever-enjoyable swirlspice!

Remind Me: Why Won't They Let Us Marry? 4:20:16 PM
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Bush Needs to Spread More Anti-Gay Hate to Please Backers

Bush's gay-marriage tack risks clash with his base. On Tuesday, Bush said for the first time that he would, "if necessary," support a constitutional amendment that defined marriage as between a man and a woman. But he said he wouldn't prohibit "whatever legal arrangements people want to make" that are "embraced" by states. ... Bush's distinction between marriage and other "legal arrangements" brought protests from some conservative leaders. "I'm concerned that the president thinks that counterfeit institutions such as same-sex unions are OK, that he doesn't see that they threaten to devalue the real thing," says Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council. He relayed his objections to the White House on Wednesday. But Bush seemed prepared for the question when ABC's Diane Sawyer raised the issue. He spoke deliberately and with precision. Republicans close to his campaign say he has been unenthusiastic about pushing the issue as far as some of his supporters would like. That reticence is shared by Vice President Cheney, who has a lesbian daughter. [Susan Page, USA Today via Yahoo! News, December 18, 2003]

Also of note, regarding the USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup Poll cited in the above article: "By more than 3-to-1, strong opponents outweighed strong supporters." So that means (assuming I get an even mix of socially-intelligent liberals, socially-confused moderates, and socially-retarded freepers) some 75% of everyone who reads this wants to deny me first-class status as a United States citizen.

Hmmm.

P.S. Does anybody else find it highly amusing that the other Tony Perkins -- the talented but twitchy actor who died of AIDS -- was an emotional car wreck and self-loathing closet homo?

Bush Needs to Spread More Anti-Gay Hate to Please Backers 4:15:57 PM
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HOT: CIA/Pentagon Global Prison Network

Now that Saddam is in lockup, it looks like we might learn a bit more about the international prison network of King George's Brave New World Order:

Hussein Enters Post-9/11 Web of U.S. Prisons. Saddam Hussein is now prisoner No. 1 in what has developed into a global detention system run by the Pentagon and the Central Intelligence Agency, according to government officials. It is a secretive universe, they said, made up of large and small facilities scattered throughout the world ... Officials described it as a prison system with its own unique hierarchy, one in which the most important captives are kept at the greatest distance from the prying eyes of the public and the media. It is a system in which the jailers have refined the arts of interrogation in order to drain the detainees of crucial information. Mr. Hussein's new address is still a closely guarded secret, although he is still inside Iraq ... When asked if Mr. Hussein was at airport, American officials declined to comment. The C.I.A. has quietly established its own detention system to handle especially important prisoners. The most important Qaeda leaders are held in small groups in undisclosed locations in friendly countries in the developing world, where they face long interrogations with no promise of ever gaining release. ... In dealing with its captives, the C.I.A. has the advantage of almost complete isolation. Officials say that allows the agency's interrogators to alter the physical surroundings of the Qaeda detainees to try to disorient them and also convince them that they are being held by Arab security services feared for their use of torture. Guards are sometimes dressed in the uniforms of the native countries of the detainees, a technique that may be particularly effective on captives who have experienced jail time back home. Officials said the C.I.A. might not be able to use the full range of interrogation techniques on Mr. Hussein that have been employed with Qaeda leaders. Unlike Qaeda operatives, Mr. Hussein seems destined to face some sort of public judicial review, either through an international war crimes tribunal or other trial, and so the agency's handling of him may eventually come under scrutiny. Pentagon and C.I.A. officials have denied that they use torture against detainees captured in either Iraq or the wider campaign against terror. The agency's officials have declined to comment on the techniques they use with detainees, but a senior Pentagon official said Wednesday that interrogations conducted by the Pentagon followed "well-established techniques" that do not violate the human rights of the detainees. [James Risen and Thom Shanker, New York Times via Yahoo! News, December 18, 2003]

So they can't torture Saddam because -- unlike their other captives -- he might get a public trial, and then everybody would know what "techniques" were used.

What does that tell you about what they're doing to his henchmen?

And before anybody jumps on me for being a "Saddam sympathizer," answer this: How can anyone who claims to believe in the United States Constitution justify the use of torture -- especially on those already condemned as torturers themselves?

I'm no sympathizer. I am an American. And -- despite everything I know about Colombian death squads, and the School of the Americas, and every other atrocity committed by my nation, in my name -- I maintain that this is not what the United States of America stands for.

Those who believe in torture -- and vengeance over justice -- are just plain screwed up.

P.S. Want to make sure this NYT story gets as much exposure as possible? Click the link, log in to Yahoo!, and rate the story a 5 (the link is at the end of the article). You can also e-mail the story to a friend directly from Yahoo!. You do realize, I hope, that Yahoo!'s highest-rated and most-mailed stories end up on a featured page every day, and also end up in the mailboxes of everyone who subscribes to Yahoo!'s mailing list of most popular articles.


Related articles:

Now We Are Terrorists. So now we admit we're into kidnapping, hostage-taking, and extortion. ... Betcha never read about the sons of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed; the little boys, seven and nine years old, were kidnapped in Pakistan last September, then turned over to the CIA, which brought them to America, and are interrogating them at a "secret address" (i.e., "undisclosed location") here in the States. ... [doublethink, July 28, 2003]

So We Murdered Another One, Eh? "The U.S. military said on Monday it was investigating the death in custody at the weekend of an Afghan detained last week in the east of the country. ..." Gosh, it couldn't be that we beat another Afghan to death, could it? What, you don't remember those two Afghans killed during "generally accepted interrogation techniques" at the U.S. base at Bagram? You know, the ones dead from "blunt force injuries," whose death certificates had the "homicide" box ticked, even though the Pentagon said "that the choice of 'homicide' did not necessarily mean that the dead person had been unlawfully killed." ... [doublethink, June 23, 2003]

Ernest Goes to Death Camp. We haven't heard much about the planned "death chamber" at Guantanamo Bay since it was first mentioned in late May -- at least not in the U.S. So thank God the British press, as usual, keeps picking away at this combination kangaroo-court/execution-room. ... [doublethink, June 10, 2003]

CIA 'pressure' on al-Qa'eda chief. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the captured al-Qa'eda chief who allegedly helped to mastermind the September 11 attacks, probably does not know what country he is in or even what day it is. American officials have said with some satisfaction that he is being subjected to "all appropriate pressure" while his CIA interrogators employ the "full range of permissible techniques" to get him to talk. While Ari Fleischer, President George W Bush's spokesman, said his treatment would be "humane", CIA agents said he was being held outside America so that he would not be subject to constitutional protections. ... Abu Zubaydah, another senior al-Qa'eda leade, broke under interrogation after being captured in Pakistan last March. Some US officials suggested that his painkillers, needed because he had been shot in the groin, had been selectively administered. ... [Toby Harnden, The Telegraph, March 5, 2003]

HOT: CIA/Pentagon Global Prison Network 3:48:52 PM
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Georgie Just Can't Contain Bloodlust

I am not willing to give political powers a licence to kill.

-- Italian Defense Minister Antonio Martino

George, we all know what a chubby you get over the thought of frying anybody (especially the guy who tried to kill your dad!^*), but can't you at least pretend he's going to get a fair trial? Like, just try to go through the motions, so you don't appear to be the eager killer you really are?

Bush talk of death penalty for Saddam stirs unease. George W. Bush's view that Saddam Hussein should be executed stirred unease on Wednesday in Europe, where the death penalty is outlawed, and concern in the Middle East that the ex-dictator's fate had already been sealed. The U.S. president said in an ABC News interview on Tuesday that Saddam, captured last Saturday, deserved the "ultimate penalty" for his brutal rule and that Iraqis should conduct the trial. The remarks put Washington's European allies in an uncomfortable position and politicians in Britain, Spain and Italy, firm supporters of the U.S.-led invasion that ousted Saddam in April, ducked away from talk of execution. ... Spain's Foreign Minister Ana Palacio said she opposed the death penalty for Saddam and that his trial should showcase the power of humanity over inhumanity. "Saddam's trial must be a symbol of human ethics and morality in the face of the most miserable and inhumane qualities," she said. ... Middle East leaders and commentators said Bush's comments reinforced their belief that the United States' most prized prisoner would not get a fair trial. "I doubt he will be given a fair and free trial," said Khatami, whose country fought a bloody eight-year war with Saddam's Iraq, during which Washington saw Saddam as an ally. "Saddam may say things which others do not like and he may reveal facts like who he was connected with and what support he got in the past." ... [Rosalind Russell, Reuters, December 17, 2003]

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^* Did Saddam try to assassinate Poppy Bush? Maybe. Maybe not. Go read Sy Hersh's 1993 investigative report, which says in essence that Team Clinton, pressured by the leak of an intelligence report on the alleged plot (which turned out to be "overstated and ... essentially incorrect"), decided to do something before somebody like William Safire could publicly condemn the administration for doing nothing -- so Clinton did something: He bombed Baghdad.

Writes Hersh: "[N]one of the Clinton Administration officials I interviewed over a ten-week period this summer claimed that there was any empirical evidence -- a "smoking gun" -- directly linking Saddam or any of his senior advisers to the alleged assassination attempt. The case against Iraq was, and remains, circumstantial."

Nevertheless, Hersh concludes, "on a Saturday in June, the President and his advisers could not resist proving their toughness in the international arena. If they had truly had full confidence in what they were telling the press and the public about Saddam Hussein's involvement in a plot to kill George Bush, they would almost certainly have ordered a far fiercer response than they did. As it was, confronted with evidence too weak to be conclusive but, in their view, perhaps not weak enough to be dismissed, they chose to fire missiles at night at an intelligence center in the middle of a large and populous city."

Georgie Just Can't Contain Bloodlust 2:09:27 PM
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Score One for Justice!

It's a repudiation of the Bush administration's attempt to close the federal courts to those accused of terrorism.

-- Chris Dunn
New York Civil Liberties Union

Bush Overruled on 'Dirty Bomb' Suspect. NEW YORK -- President Bush does not have power to detain American citizen Jose Padilla, the former gang member seized on U.S. soil, as an enemy combatant, a federal appeals court ruled Thursday. The decision, which ordered that Padilla be released from military custody within 30 days, could force the government to try the "dirty bomb" plot suspect in civilian courts. The White House said the government would seek a stay. In a 2-1 ruling, a three-judge panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Padilla's detention was not authorized by Congress and that Bush could not designate him as an enemy combatant without the authorization. The former Chicago gang member who converted to Islam was arrested in May 2002 Chicago's O'Hare airport as he returned from Pakistan. Within days, he was moved to a naval brig in Charleston, S.C. The court directed Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to release Padilla from military custody within 30 days, but said the government was free to transfer him to civilian authorities who can bring criminal charges. ... [Larry Neumeister, Associated Press, December 18, 2003]

That's perfectly fine -- and that's all anybody who's been following the case wanted: a fair, open, civilian trial (should it come to that, and it probably will, if BushCo doesn't get its stay).

Kudos to the court!

P.S. Love this, from the court opinion:

"As this court sits only a short distance from where the World Trade Center stood, we are as keenly aware as anyone of the threat al-Qaida poses to our country and of the responsibilities the president and law enforcement officials bear for protecting the nation.

"But presidential authority does not exist in a vacuum, and this case involves not whether those responsibilities should be aggressively pursued, but whether the president is obligated, in the circumstances presented here, to share them with Congress."

Score One for Justice! 1:53:38 PM
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Saudis Ban Teddy Bears

Nope, not an Onion headline:

Saudis ban imports of female dolls and toy bears. Saudi Arabia has banned the importation of female dolls and teddy bears, giving merchants three months to dispose of such stock, said a state-controlled newspaper yesterday. Prince Nayef, the interior minister, ordered the ban which was relayed around the country by the national Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said Al-Riyadh. The daily gave no reason for the ban, which could not be confirmed with government officials. The edict singled out stuffed-animal toys and female dolls, but it was not clear whether male dolls were included. The order also prohibited importation of crucifixes and models of Buddha, said the newspaper. The ban came as Saudi Arabia seemed to be moving toward moderation and some reform. ... [The Telegraph, December 18, 2003]

Just when you think you've heard everything...

Saudis Ban Teddy Bears 2:47:05 AM
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"My father's name was James Strom Thurmond"

"We don't have any comment," said Luke Byars, executive director of the South Carolina Republican Party.

When asked why he did not want to comment, Mr. Byars said, "We've got no comment on the whole matter."

-- New York Times, December 17, 2003

I see y'all (well, 40 or 50 of you, anyway) have been searching doublethink for the latest goss on Essie Mae Washington, the out-of-wedlock daughter born to a black woman, and sired by white, segregationist, Republican Senator Strom Thurmond of South Carolina.

You ask, I provide. But before I do, let's get something on record here: There is no shame in a white man fathering a black child, or a yellow man fathering a brown child, or a hapa-haole fathering a little green man from Mars, for that matter. The shame is in one white man's persistence in promoting and capitalizing on racism in order to further his own political career, while hiding the fact that he fathered a black child.

That said, let's go:

'At Last I Am Completely Free,' Thurmond's Daughter Says. Essie Mae Washington-Williams carried a splinter in her heart for the past 60 years and today, in front of hundreds of people, she pulled it out. Ever since she was a girl, Ms. Williams knew she was the mixed-race child of Strom Thurmond, the South Carolina senator who died in June at age 100. She had spent her whole life trying to bury the awkward truth that her mother was the Thurmond family's maid and her father was one of the most storied politicians in the South  and at one point a fiery segregationist. Today, Ms. Williams, now 78, finally broke her silence. "My father's name was James Strom Thurmond," she began, softly. Ms. Williams stood at the front of a crowded ballroom in a Columbia hotel, not far from where her father was carried through the streets in a horse-drawn carriage this summer after he died, a funeral Ms. Williams had to watch on television. "I was sensitive about his well-being, his career and his family," Ms. Williams said. "I never wanted to do anything to harm him. But my children deserved to know where they came from." And then, as the first signs of relief began to slide down her face, Ms. Williams said in a loud, clear voice, "I am Essie Mae Washington-Williams, and at last I am completely free." ... [Jeffrey Gettleman, New York Times, December 17, 2003]

I'm genuinely happy for her. We all are (I think). And far be it from me to bother a 78-year-old woman about her own complicity in helping a man like Strom Thurmond maintain his cover while propagating oppression and hate against people like her own mother -- and herself.

So I won't take Essie Mae to task. Not much, anyway. I wish she had "come out" sooner, but I understand why she didn't. I'm just glad she did. And whether or not she acknowledges her old man's hypocrisy, the point has been made:

Revelation May Alter Thurmond's Legacy. Strom Thurmond the Dixiecrat presidential candidate declared in 1948 there were "not enough troops in the Army to force the Southern people to break down segregation and admit the negro race into our theaters, into our swimming pools, into our homes, and into our churches." By the time of his death last June at age 100, many had accepted that the nation's longest-serving U.S. senator had undergone a change of heart toward blacks. Had he not eventually dropped his opposition to the Voting Rights Act? Had he not supported a national holiday honoring Martin Luther King Jr.? But the disclosure this week that Thurmond, at age 22, had fathered a child by his family's 16-year-old black maid was seen as confirmation to some that he had not truly changed at all. "He was a racist by day and a hypocrite by night," said the Rev. Joseph Lowery, who co-founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference with King. "It's hypocrisy at its worst." Had Thurmond truly changed, Lowery said, he would have acknowledged this woman during his lifetime. "I think he could have been a powerful force for reconciliation, in the South and in the country ... I think he would have become a man who had a change of heart and set an example of repentance and transformation and regeneration in the country." ... [Said] Jack Bass, a history professor at the College of Charleston ... Thurmond could end up doing more for race relations in death than he ever did during his lifetime ... "My personal hope is that it will end up leading to more dialogue about race. It certainly unlocks that door." [Allen G. Breed, Associated Press, December 17, 2003]

Which is just a nice way of saying what the NYT's Jeff Gettleman says a lot more plainly: "Ms. Williams's revelation is sure to complicate an already ambiguous legacy. And lift the lid, in a quite public way, on the schizophrenia of segregationist culture, in which blacks and whites were held separate under the law but in reality often lived quite closely with each other."

Yet, wrote Ken Cummins in 1996, "those who knew of the unusual relationship back then see no contradiction in Thurmond's championing segregation while helping a young black woman get ahead in life, because the woman purportedly is his daughter." To wit:

Many in Thurmond's hometown say reverence for late Senator will remain. The news might make headlines in other places, but people like Roberta Buggs in the small town [of Edgefield, SC] seemed to be taking it all in stride, "I said big deal. I didn't really think about it." Gene Scoggins says it could be called Edgefield's worst-kept secret that Thurmond had a biracial daughter, "I don't think it was a great shock. It probably was a shock that she came out after all this time." Beverly Petty has lived in South Carolina and Georgia her entire life, "I'm not surprised to hear this, because I've heard it rumored around Edgefield since I moved here years ago." She says it was not unusual to hear about children being born from relationships between white men and black women years ago, "It was spoken of in whispers and it was an accepted practice." The people WIS News 10 spoke to Wednesday don't believe the news will tarnish the Senator's reputation. That in a town where virtually everything is named after Strom Thurmond. Many people disagreed on the timing of Williams announcement, but most like Beth Sexton thought it was a good idea for the story to finally be out in the open, "It doesn't need to be a huge controversy. It's public and it's part of history and I think it's Ok that she did it now." [WISTV, December 17, 2003]

Oh, really now? And just what do you suppose Ms. Buggs, Ms. Petty, Ms. Sexton, and Mr. Scoggins would say if such a revelation had been made about Bill Clinton? (Not, of course, that Big Dog is a racist by any stretch of the imagination. But you get the idea.)

What I find most appalling about the nonchalance of Edgefield, South Carolina, is that the average Joes who live there are the very people who should view Strom's hypocrisy as a stain on their town, their state, and their nation.

Unfortunately, there's a lot of denial going around -- not all of it Strom's.

To his credit, Jonathan Pait, writing in the ultra-conservative Common Voice¹, touches on one aspect of the story few have mentioned to any great extent: the fact that Essie Mae's mother was just 16 when Strom had sex with her (or maybe only 15, as Carrie Butler appears to have given birth by the time she was 16):²

It should not matter whether Carrie was black or not. Strom  s shame was in the fact that Essie Mae was illegitimate -- not that he got a black girl pregnant. He should have been ashamed that he got any girl pregnant. ... The race issue sidetracks us. To many people today it doesn't seem to matter that Strom helped set back the life of a young 16-year-old girl. ... What matters to these people is that she was a black 16-year-old girl.

True enough. The problem is that Pait makes an issue of Carrie's age in order to play down the issue of racism, as if racism were not still very much a problem in the modern Deep South:

Are some of us bitter people who, unable to move on to the idea that many of those past problems in our culture have improved, want to continue to use this case to press forward our ideas that racism is always within us? ...

This brings us once again to the common denominator: Strom and Carrie had an illicit relationship. Unfortunately for our culture today, that is not enough in itself to bring shame upon the memory of the man. It also makes me pause and think of what today  s headlines would read had Carrie acted according to the prevailing wisdom of today. Most likely, we would not be reading the headlines because there would be no Essie Mae.

That last sentence is a red herring; Pait distracts us with the spectre of abortion, which has nothing whatsoever to do with the issue at hand: that Strom Thurmond was a segregationist who fathered a black daughter, and covered it up for the last 77 years of his life while carving a career out of African-American oppression.

Trying to suggest that Carrie Butler might have had an abortion had the incident occurred in this day and age (because, obviously, today's society is so morally bankrupt) is a dumb trick, for the sole benefit of dumb readers. It didn't happen today. What is, is, and what was, was.

Don't let smokescreens like that distract you. Ever.

Pait spills most of his ink on excusing Strom, his behavior presumably the inevitable result of the times in which he lived. He "credits" Strom for "taking care" of his mistake:³

To Thurmond's credit, he took care of his daughter. I realize that many do not believe he did as much as he should have. However, much of that response comes from today's notions of how illegitimacy is accepted. There is no doubt in my mind that Thurmond would have taken the same approach had Carrie Butler been a young, white maid in his family's home. Perhaps he was ashamed that his daughter was biracial. However, from reading the statements of Essie Mae and other people who knew Thurmond well, it is likely that he was more ashamed that his daughter was not his by marriage.

Sadly, Pait has convinced himself that Strom "took care of of his daughter" solely out of some noble sense of paternal obligation. Since the only person who could say what was really in Strom's heart is now dead, we can't presume that his patronage was purely self-serving; however, it is extremely difficult to imagine that his motives were entirely altruistic.

"Thurmond," wrote Ken Cummins, "in supporting a black woman he supposedly sired, remained loyal to one of the codes of his youth, said Bennettsville lawyer Frank E. Cain, a classmate of the woman purported to be the senator's daughter at South Carolina State in the late 1940s. That code required white boys, who often learned about sex 'on the colored side of town,' to take care of any children they fathered. 'It's just a carry-over from slavery where the white landlord had his black family,' Cain said recently. 'That's the old South.' Thurmond, he said, sprang from those plantation roots. 'Thurmond hated black folks,' Cain contends. 'I think his reasons for helping Essie were strictly personal.'"

Pait also -- inadvertently -- exposes his own motivation for defending Strom:

In the end, we all attempt to make our points and advance our cause by creating the story that supports our agenda.

Finally, Pait does as most people do who are backed into a corner while clinging to denial; he implores us to acknowledge the past and get over it (a.k.a. Move Along, Nothing To See Here):

[Essie Mae] has not denied the past nor has she allowed it to define her. It is an example that we should follow.

Fine, Jon: Your beloved Strom is part of the past, just as firehoses in the streets are part of Birmingham's past. But you, like so many of your neighbors, are failing to acknowledge the blatant Southern racism that still exists today.

Now, I'm not labeling everything south of the Mason-Dixon Line as KKK Territory. Far from it. I'm well aware that this is not 1948. Race relations have indeed improved, and there's a truckload of progressive organizations (and individuals) working hard to reverse Antebellum attitudes that just refuse to die.

But the South as a whole still has a long way to go, and writers like Jonathan Pait are not helping the situation by failing to tackle the very real bigotry that still flourishes like kudzu in his neck of the woods.

To deny that racism, and all other forms of bigotry, are not still deeply embedded in numerous -- and large -- pockets throughout the South is the epitome of deliberate ignorance and denial. My own stories of what I have seen, heard, and experienced in road trips through the Deep South (including more stays in Texas than I can count) pale in comparison to the stories any liberal who lives there could tell you.

Am I being holier-than-thou here? Do I think California and New York and Chicago have it all together, while the South is just a hellhole of cross-burning freaks in white sheets? Nope. We've all got race problems (what do you think the Rodney King riots were all about?) -- but the South, sadly, still "boasts" a disproportionately high concentration of racist organizations and hate groups.

I applaud any effort to confront racial issues. But I can't abide by any attempt to dismiss racism as if it were an anomaly from the past. It's neither an anomaly, nor is it past.

But don't take my word for it; here's what Black Commentator, in discussing the current state of labor unions in the South, had to say last year:

The Republican Party below the Mason-Dixon Line has been transformed into the White Man's Party, under the firm control of racist businessmen who are as vicious as mistreated pit bulls. ...

The White Man's Party -- the southern GOP -- is organized labor  s most implacable political foe, the boss's mouthpiece. Its groveling cousin is the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC), a group of conniving white Democrats whose mission is to retain dwindling white support through continual compromise with Republicans. ...

This Southern Disease has infected the entire nation, moving the country  s political center of gravity further rightward and southward, year after year. Labor and Blacks count fewer friends on Capitol Hill. Both groups find themselves accepting whatever crumbs they can get from whoever lives in the White House.

Hey, I didn't write it -- but I'm certainly in no position to refute a word of it.⁴ (Frankly, I couldn't agree more with the description of the DLC as a "groveling cousin" of the GOP, comprised of "conniving white Democrats whose mission is to retain dwindling white support through continual compromise with Republicans." It's true.)

Remember too that racism is not a malady restricted to poor, rural Southerners -- any more than all poor, rural Southerners are racists. They're not. It's just easier for rich white Southerners (like Trent Lott, and like middle-class suburbanites who raise a ruckus every time somebody threatens to remove the Confederate flag from their capitol building) to let the rest of the country assume the "white trash" stereotype is an accurate one. Bigots come from all socioeconomic classes, and there's no dearth of them among the privileged and undeserving.

This is where Howard Dean got into trouble, when he said he wanted to be "the candidate for guys with Confederate flags in their pickup trucks." His intention was inarguably admirable; unfortunately, it appears that the gentleman from New England had no idea how his words would strike the ladies and gentlemen of the Deep South. As Miami Herald columnist Leonard Pitts wrote:

It was an inarticulate way of saying an important thing: that Dean wants to reach out to poor whites in the South. ...

[Poor white people] are, in Dean's inference, synonymous with racism and its symbols. Yes, there has historically been a vivid streak of bigotry in that stratum of society. But anyone who thinks bigotry is the exclusive province of poor white folk has obviously never heard of John Rocker. Or, for that matter, Louis Farrakhan.

Bingo. Those who control, for example, the Southern Baptist Convention, aren't exactly living in trailers in the backwoods, sucking up one beer after another while their wives trim their mullets. Ditto the Council of Conservative Citizens.

You can't blame po' white folk alone for racism. But you can blind yourself to the real power (and money) behind the organizations that promote hate throughout the South, and throughout the entire nation -- people like Strom Thurmond, and his surviving (and thriving) legions of good-ol'-boy, "Christian" apologists who have infested the federal government like fleas.

That Southern racism is dead is a lie of the Southern Right who follow in Strom Thurmond's well-worn shoes, and others blinded to the truth of the matter -- a "cherished lie," as Slate's Timothy Noah wrote just over a year ago:

The lie is that Thurmond, though once a leading segregationist, later renounced that view as morally wrong. Trent Lott repeated the lie at his Dec. 13 press conference. Thurmond, he said,

came to understand the evil of segregation and the wrongness of his own views. And to his credit, he's said as much himself. ... By the time I came to know Strom Thurmond, some 40 years after he ran for president ... he had long since renounced many of the views of the past, the repugnant views he had had.

... But there never was any such expression of remorse or plea for forgiveness. Thurmond has never publicly repudiated his segregationist past, and with his 100th birthday and a Senate career behind him, it's doubtful he ever will. The legend of Strom's Remorse was invented, by common unspoken consent within the Beltway culture, in order to provide a plausible explanation why Thurmond should continue to hold power and command at least marginal respectability well past the time when history had condemned Thurmond's most significant political contribution.

And so, between with the wink-and-nudge powermongers in Washington, and too many white folks who refuse to acknowledge that there are plenty of race-issue problems left to be fixed in the South, things have not improved as quickly as some folks like to think. Nor will they.

For that reason alone, I wish Essie Mae had been a little less forgiving, and lot quicker to speak up.


Related articles:

In his own words. Here are some of the words spoken or written by Strom Thurmond during his legal and political career. ... "The white people of the South are the greatest minority in this nation. They deserve consideration and understanding instead of the persecution of twisted propaganda." -- 1956 following release of the Southern Manifesto ... "Mr. President, I rise to speak against the so-called voting rights bill, H.R. 6127." -- About 9 p.m. on Aug. 28, 1957, the start of Thurmond  s record-setting 24-hour, 18-minute filibuster in the U.S. Senate. ... "I am not prejudiced against the Negro. When I was governor, I did more to help the Negroes in our State than any previous Governor, and I think you can find Negro leaders in the State who will attest to this fact." -- July 11, 1963, letter ... [The State, December 9, 2002]

Thurmond Factoids. Strom Thurmond's political career spans seven decades, long enough to leave a long paper trail of quotes. Here are some you may have missed. "I would not have written him if I knew he was a Negro. Of course, it would have been ridiculous to have invited him." -- On his invitation to Gov. William H. Hastie (Virgin Islands) to be his guest at the Governor's Mansion, 1949. ... "I don't know how I got such a reputation as a segregationist. I think my position was just misunderstood A person can't help the color God made him." -- 1974 ... "I have done more for black people than any other person in the nation, North or South." -- 1988 ...[Jill Carroll, South Carolina Voters for Clean Elections]

Strom's Skeleton: The late segregationist's black daughter. In all the words spent on Strom Thurmond's life and times since his death last week, I have seen no acknowledgment of the most interesting of his sundry racial legacies. She is Essie Mae Washington Williams, a widowed former school teacher in her 70s, living in Los Angeles. Presumably she did not show up for any of the obsequies even though Strom Thurmond was almost certainly her father. Williams is black. ... In contrast to, say, George "I Was Wrong" Wallace, Thurmond has always been an ornery redemption project. He did not repent. Even so, his illegitimate daughter further complicates the moral picture. Does she mean that he was even more heinous than we knew? Or that  dude!  he wasn't such a racist bastard after all? ... [Diane McWhorter, Slate, July 1, 2003]

Thurmond's Black Daughter No Surprise In South Carolina. The claim of a retired schoolteacher that she is Strom Thurmond's illegitimate Black daughter comes as no surprise to many South Carolinians ... The claim is old news to Jack Bass, co-author of "Ol' Strom: An Unauthorized Biography of Strom Thurmond." "Essie Mae has proven what was not documented but what was widely believed," Bass told The (Columbia) State newspaper in Sunday's edition. Strom Thurmond Jr., the U.S. attorney for South Carolina, says his family will not contest Williams' claim. ... [Associated Press, December 17, 2003]

Trent Lott: White Nationalist Political Leadership. Strom Thurmond walked out of the Democratic Convention in 1948 when Hubert Humphrey called for the party to finally recognize segregation as a problem that it had to confront. Thurmond ran for president that year on the States Rights Democrat Party ticket, winning over one million votes, most of which came from Alabama, Mississippi, South Carolina and Louisiana. ... The Civil rights Movement brought George Wallace, governor of Alabama, to public attention as an opponent of desegregation of the University of Alabama, and he promptly used this notoriety to run for president on the American Independence Party ticket in 1968. Although he did not win, he attracted more than 3 million votes, mostly from the South, and in the 1972 election, this Southern block went into the Republican party and has remained there ever since. The Republican Party then is a party of traditional Northern economic conservatives who are married to Southern social conservatives and the Southern bloc has leveraged its power inside the party to the point that it exercises disproportionate leadership. Trent Lott was the leading edge of this trend ... But a host of others followed him, such as former Reps. Newt Gingrich of Georgia and Tom De Lay of Texas. And they brought their ties to racist organizations right along with them in their leadership in the House and Senate. ... [Ron Walters, BlackPressUSA]

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¹ How conservative is Common Voice? Well, my first impression of CV was formed when I read this from the Wyeth Wire: "Jimmy Moore, a conservative columnist for Common Voice and Talon News, has posted step by step instructions for how to register in the MoveOn primary and vote for Al Sharpton. Moore posts the text of the registration message from MoveOn, so it appears likely that he is already registered and ready to cast his vote. ..."

While I nearly felt sorry for editor Jonathan Pait, provoked just weeks ago (thanks to another Jimmy Moore piece that raised the ire of SC Senator John Hawkins) to publish an editorial entitled "The Common Voice does not equal Jimmy Moore" -- and despite Pait's reassurance that Moore is only "one of a number ... of columnists from across the political spectrum" -- my impression has not improved with repeated visits to CV. That CV grants space to any of Moore's blindly skewed op/eds (October's gems include "The United States Is No Longer A Christian Nation," "Limbaugh Story Shows Addiction Can Hit Anyone," and "Evil Exemplified in FCUK Products") does little to lure me back.

And, by the way, Mr. Pait, since you'll probably run across this and wonder why I didn't post my views on your Web site, I'll tell you right now: I'd stand out like Malcolm X at a Klan meeting. (Not that I'm a Black Muslim, any more than you guys are cross-burners; but, just in case anybody over at CV -- like Jimmy Moore -- tries to jump all over that statement, I will clarify: That's called "exaggeration," Jimmy, used for effect.)

One more thing, Jon: Rest assured that it's not just Jimmy Moore that makes us lefties run screaming from CV. Until you really do find a few more columnists "from across the political spectrum" to counter your current columnists -- who refer to Dr. King's "sexual sins," call Jesse Jackson "despicable" (three times in one sentence, in fact), and promote faith-based education by selectively quoting the Founding Fathers while conveniently ignoring their clear warnings against mixing religion with state-sponsored institutions -- CV will be nothing like the presumably fair-and-balanced publication you appear to envision.

Ask Joe Lolli if he has any like-minded friends who can write. He may be a gun nut, but anybody who pens a letter to Bill O'Reilly that begins "Hey, Pinhead" can't be all bad.

P.S. Nah, I don't mind sending you traffic. With any luck, a couple of lefties might want to start writing for you, and counterbalance CV's overwhelming right-wing slant.

P.P.S. Before you ask me why I don't offer right-wing views to counterbalance my own decidedly lefty view of the world, the answer is simple: I don't have to. This is my blog, full of nothing but my views. I don't pretend it's anything else, nor would I want it to be.

² Here's what the current South Carolina legal code has to say about statutory rape: "SECTION 16-3-810. Engaging child for sexual performance; penalty. (a) It is unlawful for any person to employ, authorize, or induce a child younger than eighteen years of age to engage in a sexual performance. It is unlawful for a parent or legal guardian or custodian of a child younger than eighteen years of age to consent to the participation by the child in a sexual performance. (b) Any person violating the provisions of subsection (a) of this section is guilty of criminal sexual conduct of the second degree and upon conviction shall be punished as provided in Section 16-3-653."

³ No, I don't mean Essie Mae was a "mistake." I mean 22-year-old Strom's decision to have at it with the teenage daughter of the family maid was a mistake.

⁴ Don't get the idea that BC is some sort of "radical," anti-white publication; I find some of the soundest commentary on the Web at BC -- which never hesitates for a moment to call prominent African-Americans on the carpet as quickly as anyone else. Take a look at some of BC's articles about Condoleezza Rice or Colin Powell, to name just two.

"My father's name was James Strom Thurmond" 2:25:25 AM
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