REVIEW & OUTLOOK
Fox and Hounds
The left blackballs the Black Caucus.
WSJ.com
Tuesday, April 10, 2007 12:01 a.m.
In the battle for control of the Democratic Party, the George Soros-MoveOn.org crowd is used to getting its way. So it's revealing to watch the consternation in those precincts to the Congressional Black Caucus decision to co-sponsor a pair of Presidential primary debates this year with Fox News.
Liberal activists are livid, to say the least, with one anti-Fox pressure group condemning the Black Caucus for "dancing with the devil." Color of Change, a coalition of black online activists, says the collaboration promulgates "bigoted, hate-filled worldviews." Markos Moulitsas, the DailyKos front man, calls the CBC "corrupt and compromised" for "doing Fox's bidding." His implication is that Black Caucus Members have somehow been bought off, though there is no evidence to support the slur. This is to say nothing of some of the more vicious blog chatter, much of it carrying racial connotations.
All of this induced Howard Dean's Democratic National Committee to announce last week that it won't "sanction" the CBC debates. John Edwards also repeated his profiles-in-courage act by announcing that he won't participate in the CBC-Fox debate. This follows last month's pander when he, the Nevada Democratic Party and Nevada Senator Harry Reid knelt before MoveOn.org demands that another scheduled primary debate co-hosted by Fox be called off. And yesterday Barack Obama bowed to the mob by declaring he also won't attend; so much for the Senator's promise to change the tenor of our politics.
The Internet vigilantes would like to drum Fox News out of polite society, but it's clear from the Black Caucus episode that this isn't really about Fox. This is about who runs the Democratic Party. Ever since they came close to nominating Howard Dean for President in 2004, left-wing Web activists have tried to punish any Democrat who dares to step out of line. They tried to run Joe Lieberman out of the Party for his views on Iraq, and they want to banish California Congresswoman Ellen Tauscher because she's voted for free trade agreements.
The pitchfork carriers now want to tell elected Democratic officials which journalists they can appear in public with. Messrs. Edwards and Obama are bowing to those orders because they've decided they can only defeat Hillary Clinton by running to her left. Of course if by some miracle one of them wins the nomination, he'll be known as the candidate from MoveOn.org in the general election too. Republicans will have fun with that one.
The Black Caucus has a different agenda, which is to win elections and hold the Democratic majority in Congress. A spokesman for the CBC Institute, which organizes these educational functions, says the goal is to reach the "broadest audience possible." This seems sensible enough, especially because Fox's market research shows that more than half its audience is Democrats and independents.
In fact, the caucus went out of its way to be, well, fair and balanced. It is co-sponsoring two primary debates on Fox, one Democratic and one Republican, and is doing the same on CNN. In 2003, the CBC also joined with Fox News on two Democratic debates that came off successfully. (This page has its own weekend show on Fox.)
The CBC deserves credit for not capitulating to ideological intimidation--and for refusing to take orders from affluent and angry liberals who've never run for office. Too bad the candidates have weaker knees. |
