Morning Joe’s Mika Taking the Heat for Conversation on Race

This morning while watching the Morning Joe I was struck by how this Henry Louis Gates story will not go away. By now everyone knows the story. Black man arrested in his own home by white policemen, but the facts of the incident are still in dispute. The President has said the cops acted “stupidly” which elevated the conversation, but the sad part of this is people are being attacked for facilitating the conversation. In the case of Mika Brzenski she said she was receiving hate mail from both sides for merely asking questions, but that is her job to ask questions. Race is an uncomfortable conversation. most of the time we don’t discuss it but that does not mean that race is not an issue. It is times like this that force us to grample with this touchy subject. While watching the show it was interesting to see co-workers who normally affirm each other at odds with each other. Race is a polarizing subject but the conversation on race should not be polarizing, but unfortunately it is.

Lesson to Michael Steele: The One Who Controls the Money Controls the Party, And That My Friend is Not You

Michael Steele was riding high when he was named GOP Chairman. He was riding so high that he felt like he was on equal footing with the president. Over the last few months we have seen Steele ask the question “how you like me now?” We have seen him lambast Rush Limbaugh and then coming crawling back seeking absolution from him. We have seen him appear at the Tavis Smiley think tank and try to sell the GOP as a viable alternative in the black community. Steele seemingly felt it was his job to try to expand the tent, but now he knows the real people in power in the party are not looking to make this tent any bigger. Now the party big wigs have gotten control of the money and Steele can not make a move unless they say he can. He is the Chairman but in name only. “Capitulating to critics on the Republican National Committee, embattled Republican Party Chairman Michael S. Steele has signed a secret pact agreeing to controls and restraints on how he spends hundreds of millions of dollars in party funds and contracts.” No other chairman has been subjected to this kind of action. So now Steele is a first in two categories

Jeremiah Wright Says Obama Made a Mistake When He Left Trinity

This spring during the primaries ABC News unearthed some very firey and controversial sermons delivered by Barack Obama’s former pastor, Jeremiah Wright. Initially Obama denounced the sermons, but he supported his former pastor, but after Wright’s appearance at the National Press Club Obama had to cut all of his ties with Wright. Wright has since stepped down as the pastor of Trinity but he was in the pulpit yesterday celebrating the church’s anniversary. Wright who is angry at his treatment by the media said  “The hatred of the media and the haters in politics may have caused him to distance himself from us, but the love of Christ will never allow me to distance myself from him,” Wright said of Obama. “I can no more disown him than I can disown any other child of mine who makes [a] bad decision. He made a bad decision, but he’s still my child.” This was a very personal decision for the president-elect, but had he not made the decision he would not be the president elect.