Donna Edwards Can Kick Al Wynn Out of the Black Caucus
by BAR executive editor
Glen Ford
"Edwards has the derelict congressman running scared and
desperately attempting to revise his sordid record"
In recent years, a cabal of corporate-bought members have
degraded the cohesion and progressive legacy of the Congressional Black Caucus
(CBC), reducing the once-proud body to an impotent shell. The fracturing of the
CBC is largely the work of the Democratic Leadership Council, the bastion and
bank of corporate power in the Party.
As a Trojan Horse for Big Business on Capitol Hill, the DLC has suborned
the most opportunistic members of the Caucus, awarding them with key positions
and prime access to campaign cash. Among the worst malefactors is Albert Wynn,
the mis-Representative from the Maryland suburbs of Washington DC, and the
DLC's corporate bagman within the Congressional Black Caucus.
By slavishly voting for corporate-backed legislation -
Republican bills supported by the DLC's right wing of Democrats - Wynn's
faction in the CBC give credence to the fiction, that African Americans are
drifting politically to the right. Although having no basis in fact, this
wishful canard holds that Blacks in more affluent districts are becoming more
"conservative" - especially in places like Prince George's County, Wynn's base
and the most prosperous majority-Black county in the nation.
"A solid progressive,
Edwards is confident she can dethrone the pretender."
However, Albert Wynn looks like he's on the rocks. Donna
Edwards, who came within a few percentage points of ousting Wynn, in 2006,
despite a late start and bone-dry treasury, has the derelict congressman
running scared and desperately attempting to revise his sordid record before
Democratic primary voters have their say on February 12. A solid progressive,
Edwards is confident she can dethrone the pretender, this time around.
"There is no excuse for somebody representing the 4th
congressional district voting with Republicans and voting with President Bush,"
says Edwards, a longtime executive in the non-profit sector. "Where it's really
coming home to roost, today, is with his bad vote on bankruptcy. When he sided
with Republicans to undermine consumers' and homeowners' positions in
bankruptcy court, we're seeing that come to roost today in the number of
foreclosures going on in our district and around the country."
Edwards is referring to the disastrous Spring of 2005,
when ten Black Caucus members voted with Republicans (and DLCers) to limit
citizen access to bankruptcy court. A total of 15 Black congresspersons - more
than a third of the Caucus - supported at least one of three key GOP
measures on bankruptcy, the estate tax, and energy. Albert Wynn was one of
four Blacks that supported all three Republican bills - a total sellout.
But Wynn had been working for the other team for years. He
and Harold Ford Jr. (TN), Sanford Bishop (GA), and William Jefferson (LA) were
the only CBC members to support giving George Bush authority to invade Iraq, in
2002 - the very same treasonous faction that would pitch their tents solidly in
the Republican camp on bankruptcy, energy and the estate tax, in 2005.
"Beginning with Wynn's
original Four Saboteurs, political corruption has spread like a cancer in the
Caucus."
It was the beginning of the end for the Congressional
Black Caucus, as presently constituted. Ever since Wynn, Ford, Bishop and
Jefferson defected to Bush, five years ago, the CBC has been 
incapable of
taking a firm position to end the Iraq war, forcing progressive members to work
outside of the Caucus. Beginning with Wynn's original Four Saboteurs, political
corruption has spread like a cancer in the Caucus. In the Spring of 2006,
two-thirds of the CBC caved to the telecom industry to support a bill that
would have rolled
back decades of hard-won Black gains in cable access - a higher percentage
than among Democrats in the House as a whole!
This steady Black Caucus slide into irrelevance, and
worse, compelled Donna Edwards to challenge corporate power, in the person of
Albert Wynn:
"We need some regulation on the telecommunications
industry, because some of our neighborhoods are completely left out of the next
generation on the internet. The telecommunications giants are giving my
opponent money, but they're not giving me money. I want to challenge the oil
and gas companies and say, instead of giving you $20 billion in tax breaks,
like my opponent voted for, I want to take that $20 billion and invest it in
alternative sources of energy and research and development so that we can look
at a new energy future that is not dependent on fossil fuels."
"Some of our
neighborhoods are completely left out of the next generation on the internet."
Wynn will, once again, outspend Edwards by millions - the
DLC will make certain of that. Former congressman Harold Ford Jr., once George
Bush's favorite Black Democrat ("I love George Bush!" Ford gushed), now
chairman of the DLC and a richly-paid vice-presidential flunky for Wall Street,
was the speaker at Wynn's campaign kick-off, last summer. Nancy Pelosi, once
co-chair of the Progressive Congressional Caucus but now indistinguishable from
the DLCers that surround her as Speaker of the House, gave her blessings to a
Wynn fundraiser, last weekend.
Edwards, however, has shown she can work wonders on a
small budget, and an array of progressive organizations have pitched in. An
assortment of bloggers centered on the Blue Majority has pledged to
raise $150,00 for Edwards' campaign. Black internetizens, led by ColorOfChange.com, relentlessly
champion Edwards' candidacy as a prelude to a wholesale cleansing of the CBC.
"Congressman Al Wynn from Maryland's 4th district is a perfect example of the
lack of accountability that's hurting our community," said a Color Of Change
letter sent to tens of thousands of potential donors. Edwards' campaign "is
about whether or not representatives like Al Wynn can stay in office when they
repeatedly cast votes against the interests of their constituents. It's about
whether or not members of the Congressional Black Caucus - which claims to work
for the interests of Black people and describes itself as the "conscience
of Congress" - can afford to turn its back on the Black community."
"Wynn is a perfect
example of the lack of accountability that's hurting our community."
Shocked at the momentum of Edwards' challenge in 2006,
Wynn attempted to erase his 2002 pro-war vote by nominally joining the Out of
Iraq Caucus. But anybody can place their name on that list, and it's far too
late, now. Wynn's combined scores on the CBC Monitor's Report Cards, from
September 2005 through September 2007, rate him fifth from the bottom of the
class - despite the leopard's frenzied recent efforts to change his spots.
Residents of Maryland's 4th Congressional
District don't need a report card as testimony to Wynn's betrayal. "Prince
Georges County is right now taking the highest rate of foreclosures in the
state, and in my zip code, which is in a supposedly affluent African American
neighborhood, people with college degrees and advanced degrees - and we're
facing the highest rate of foreclosures in our county," Edwards reports. "We
need to get back to a system of regulating this industry that seems to have
bought its influence all over Capitol Hill and is running away with the store
against the interests of consumers."
What Black America needs is a Congressional Black Caucus
that is accountable to the will its constituents. Al Wynn is only one of at
least ten
members that are beyond political redemption. Throw the bums out! Wall
Street doesn't have enough corporate vice-presidential slots to accommodate
these derelicts, once evicted from The Hill, so some of them may face financial
hardship.
Let them take their chances in bankruptcy court.
Glen Ford can be contacted at Glen.Ford@BlackAgendaReport.com.
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