Tim Kaine is a coward

Coward. Black people should shut
their mouths


I got this charming e-mail this morning from ther cowardly Kaine campaign.

Until today.

Now, they got a few mewling e-mails from people who take the racist Andrew Sullivan seriously, and now they want me to pull the ad. Fine.

The ad wasn't all that important to me, but the gutlessness of the Kaine campaign is.

First of all, depicting Michael Steele as a minstrel was neither accidental nor random. The specific reason is this: a couple of weeks ago, as I posted, Bob Erhlich was attending an event at an all-white country club. Steele was asked what he thought of that, being black and all. He said "it was no big deal".

What?

First of all, in a state as black as Maryland, Erhlich's actions were amazing in an of themselves. But Steele's attempt to brush it away was astounding. I mean, what kind of self-respecting black man would do that? I mean, that's just craven.

Hence the minstrel paint.

Now, I've done that before, but Bob George felt no need to run to his patron to tattle. But he did, and someone ran to the Kaine campaign and said "look at that racist picture" and of course, they buckled without calling me or contacting me to find out what was going on.

Robert George cannot stand on his own two feet and has been embarassed here, but I still like him, more or less. I don't think he's evil, he just has a yellow streak down his back a mile wide and a foot deep. If people flooded him with e-mails and got one of his ads pulled, well, he'd be crying. I'm a little pissed, but mostly at the lack of courage on both sides. We both know who's the better man. But then, we always did.

Now, of course, they are in the embarassing position of pulling an ad from an African-American who expressed his opinion, because of the complaints of a known racist. When outraged conservatives call me, unknowingly, a racist, I find that amusing. Or lecture me on race. Hell, they're the ones preventing a color-blind society and they want to pick on me?

Fine. It's humorous. The cabs still pass me by. I know exactly what it is like to be black in America. Forty years of it.

But they reacted like scared children, despite the hundreds of other opinions here. Drunk, mean Bush, fine. Telling the Yankess to fuck off, fine. Attacking homophobic blacks, great. But mocking a mediocre politican who runs on race, and is being abandoned by his own party as the WaPo illustrated yesterday-pull the ad.

And of course, they'll have to explain themselves at some point.

Michelle Malkin can slander Japanese-Americans and no one will pull her ads. Andy Sullivan can advocate whatever he wants, no one pulls his ads.

But Democrats, when receiving complaints, jump and run to pull ads to avoid offending anyone. Without asking. If they had asked, I would have been inclined to provide them cover. But not now.

But there's something more pernicious than that. The assumption many people make is that I'm a white man. Now, people have done this in other cases, but in this case it's well, pretty fucking stupid.

What white progressive or liberal would feel free enough to make fun of a black man by putting him in blackface? No one. I can't imagine one doing so. Just the art alone would indicate I wasn't worried about being seen as racist, and hint, hint, I might be black.

But why do people assume I'm white? Because many people simply cannot imagine a black man blogging, much less expressing his opinions on a range of topics. It isn't what they are trained to think. Sports, ok, but politics, nope. It amuses me some days, but it does get other people in trouble

So now the Kaine campaign is in the silly position of responding to a racist while withdrawing support from an African-American. Which could have been avoided if they had talked before running scared.

If they had asked, they could have found out why I made such a brutal commentary on Steele's character and why I will do so again. When black Republicans act with dignity and stop running on race, there will be no need to depict them as minstrels and lackies. But as long as they act that way, that is how they will be depicted here.

But what really and truly bothers me is not the ad pull. You play football, you wake up sore. But the responsiveness to the opposition.

The Kaine campaign has never been responsible for the content on this site. They just buy space. They have probably disagreed with my stands. But they respond to people who will not vote for them, want them to lose and uses anything to pressure them.

And in the end, hurts them more than if they blew it off. The campaign didn't need me to go after them, but I am, because they are cowards. They didn't even have the common courtesy to explain that they were getting e-mails.

I've already spoken to Rohrbach, well shouted at the poor bastard. You're free to join in.

My beef with them is the same I have with Sherrod Brown. Cowardice should not be rewarded.

posted by Steve @ 11:08:00 AM