On Racial Issues, Appearance Matters

Appearances matter.

Nowhere is this more important than in politics, especially when race is involved.

Recently it was revealed that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) telephoned embattled Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D), urging him not to select Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. or Rep. Danny Davis or Illinois Senate President Emil Jones. All three are African-American.

Reports indicate Reid felt the three African-Americans could not, as sitting senators, win reelection, and instead favored Attorney General Lisa Madigan and Veterans’ Affairs director Tammy Duckworth.

No one has accused Reid of racism, and rightfully so. And while Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn (also rightfully) asked in a statement why Reid would “believe these three Illinois officeholders are unelectable to the U.S. Senate.” Democrats have remained silent. So have the media.

It doesn’t take much to imagine the outcry and charges of racism from House and Senate Democrats, the media and liberal blogosphere had a Republican senator done the same. Democrats would crowd the cameras in the Russell Rotunda, climbing on their high horse to denounce the latest GOP outrage. The TV news cycle would go into overdrive.

That the revelation of Reid’s phone call comes at a time when Reid is threatening not to seat Roland Burris, the African-American lawfully appointed to the seat, makes the situation all the more troubling.

If Reid believes Jackson, Davis and Jones, all of whom have won elections, are unelectable statewide (and as the top Democrat in the Senate, it is understandable that he wants to keep the seat for the Democrats), he should explain why he believes these three African-Americans are unelectable while Tammy Duckworth, who lost her House race in an overwhelmingly Democratic year, is electable.

Here we are, just days before the ceremonial beginning of the Age of Obama. We’re supposed to be ushering in a new post-racial period in American life. And yet, while the Republicans have two African-Americans running to be the chairman of the Republican National Committee, the Senate majority leader, a Democrat, has labeled three prominent Illinois African-American leaders unelectable and continues to object to Roland Burris to the point that it runs the risk of becoming a Supreme Court/James Meredith situation.

The appearance it creates is not good for the Democrats. And, politics aside, it ain’t exactly good for America, either.