As we think back on the festivities
down in Washington last week, it should be clearer than ever how
complicated or contradictory the image of the Republican Party is. On
that cold Washington morning, there were a number of people seated near
the podium. At the center of the ceremony was Trent Lott, whose
presence was taken as an insult even by black Republicans. Sitting
there in the chill with everyone else was Democrat Barak Obama, the new
senator from Illinois, whose opponent was the carpetbagger Alan Keyes.
A contemptuous quick fix by the GOP, the elephants flew him to the
Midwest before he could even pack his carpet bag. Their idea must have
been that a Negro long associated with the Eastern seaboard would be
able to dupe black voters because they could only notice that he was of
darker skin than Obama. With Condoleezza Rice behind him, Colin Powell
sat there, a man who had not been able to wield more influence on the
President than the warlike so-called neo-cons and whose reputation was
destroyed after he stood behind faulty CIA intelligence on weapons of
mass destruction in Iraq. [more]
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