Ignore the Black Liberals and go after the Conservative Preachers. Way to go.
Black leaders, clergy differ over Bush's outreach efforts
By Wayne Washington, Globe Staff, 7/17/2003
WASHINGTON -- President Bush met with a roomful of black clergy and community leaders yesterday to preach the gospel of his faith-based initiatives and capitalize politically on his recent trip to Africa, introducing his national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, to brief audience members on what the president saw during his travels.
But even while he was warmly received by his specially invited guests, the chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, Representative Elijah Cummings, Democrat of Maryland, sent out a statement explaining why he declined an invitation to meet with Bush to discuss his trip to Africa.
''The CBC has requested a meeting with the president for over two and a half years and, unfortunately, each time he has refused,'' Cummings's statement read. ''I appreciate the president's gesture to include me as a part of the group of congressional members to be briefed on his recent trip to Africa. However, I would hope that the president would meet with the CBC, as a whole, on the many pressing domestic and international challenges facing this country.''
Another caucus member, Representative Donald M. Payne of New Jersey, the top Democrat on an Africa subcommittee in the House of Representatives, accepted the invitation and met with Bush yesterday afternoon.
Of Cummings, White House spokeswoman Claire Buchan said: ''The president was pleased to invite him and would have welcomed him here.'' She added that Bush frequently meets with members of Congress, including individual caucus members, on a variety of different topics.
Bush received less than 10 percent of the black vote during the 2000 election, and his relationship with elected black political leaders has deteriorated sharply since taking office and holding an initial meeting with caucus members. Black political leaders say the president's policies and appointments have been a boon to wealthy Americans but harmful to blacks.
Kweisi Mfume, president and chief executive officer of the NAACP, has also been sharply critical of Bush for meeting with the organization when he was running for president but repeatedly rebuffing organization officials who have sought to meet with him since then.
Bush, however, has a measure of support among some black clergy members, who see his faith-based initiative as a welcome opportunity to get money for programs aimed at curing the very urban ills political leaders talk about addressing. Presidential aides have not hesitated to mention Bush's faith-based initiative when asked about the frustration many blacks feel toward the administration.
Yesterday, Bush told audience members: ''Really what we're doing is we're signing up the armies of compassion, which already exist, and saying, `What can we do to help you fulfill your calling and your mission?' ''
The Rev. Eugene F. Rivers III, pastor of the Azusa Christian Community in Dorchester, attended the meeting yesterday. ''President Bush has fooled everyone, in particular liberal elites and the liberal media,'' Rivers said, noting Bush's $15 billion pledge to fight AIDS in Africa. ''I think he's done an excellent job.''
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