Three Who See the War Clearly: Reps. McKinney, Serrano and Wexler

Only three Democrats voted on the issue of the Iraq war, last Friday. The rest followed Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s directives, a continuation of her “strategy” of insulating the pro-war wing of the party, centered in the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC), from the wrath of the party’s base, which is now overwhelmingly anti-war. For the DLC’s sake, Pelosi smothers the party’s progressive wing – of which she was once a proud member. Thus, the San Francisco congresswoman maintains the fiction of a united House Democratic front, to disguise the flaccid reality: the pro-war faction has veto power over Democratic Iraq policy – a veto exercised by Pelosi, herself.

Of the 42 Black Caucus members in the House, only one dared buck Pelosi’s discipline: Cynthia McKinney (GA), joined by New York’s Jose Serrano and Florida’s Robert Wexler.

The three faced the choice of defying Pelosi (and, in McKinney’s case, the CBC leadership’s similar attempts to put forward a face of unity without purpose) or to take advantage of the only chance available since October, 2002 to express an unqualified NO to the Iraq war.

After the 403 to three vote, in a statement submitted for the record, McKinney said:

“Tonight I speak as one who has at times been the only Member of this Body at antiwar demonstrations calling for withdrawal. And I won’t stop calling for withdrawal.

“I was opposed to this war before there was a war; I was opposed to the war during the war; and I am opposed to this war now – even though it’s supposed to be over.

“I urge that we pursue an orderly withdrawal from Iraq and pursue, along with our allies, a diplomatic solution to the situation in Iraq, supporting the aspirations of the Iraqi people through support for democratic processes.”

(The full text of Rep. McKinney’s statement appears at the bottom of this page.)

McKinney and her two lonely colleagues – along with every true progressive in the CBC and the Democratic Caucus as a whole – were caught in a bizarre tango between Republican and Democratic leadership. The GOP, reeling from disintegrating public support for the Iraq war and occupation, and from the media frenzy over hawkish Pennsylvania Democrat John Murtha’s call for redeployment of U.S. forces out of Iraq, submitted their own bogus resolution for troop withdrawal. The utterly cynical Republican shorthand language read:

Murtha’s own blockbuster resolution, a much more detailed and nuanced proposal that will never see the light of day on the House floor if Pelosi can help it, resolved that:

The Republicans were baiting the Democrats, knowing full well that the last thing Nancy Pelosi, John Kerry, Hillary Clinton – and yes, Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean – want to allow the public to observe is the extent to which Democrats in congress support a continuation of the war. The GOP, through unscrupulous disregard for the rules and spirit of the House, were determined to flush out the Democratic double-talkers. Pelosi was just as keen to protect them – resulting in last Friday night’s spectacle, in which Democrats showered praise on Murtha and outrage at GOP shenanigans, but pointedly failed to voice support for Murtha’s redeployment out of Iraq. Republicans came off like the ruthless, lying villains they are, while Democrats railed over ethics and procedure, rather than substance.

There was no room for peace in this strange arrangement, with Republicans daring the anti-war forces to declare themselves, while Pelosi ordered that they stay hidden, so as not to reveal the shape-shifters in Democratic ranks. Cynthia McKinney refused to be put in a vise. She voted “yes”:

But she will never willingly go for a knockout – a pull-out from Iraq. “According to one Democratic source,” the Los Angeles Times reported on Monday, ” Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi… has dropped plans to seek a vote in early December on adopting a Democratic Conference position in support of Murtha’s plan.”

CBC: The Conscience of the Congress?

Murtha’s languishing resolution has 13 cosponsors, three of them Black: Barbara Lee (CA), Charles Rangel (NY) and Sheila Jackson-Lee (TX). By BC’s reckoning, a Murtha-like resolution would garner at least 30 CBC votes, probably substantially more – if unconstrained by House leadership. But that number should by rights hover around 40, given the near-universal African American opposition to the war. According to the latest USA Today poll, 95 percent of African Americans call the war “a mistake,” compared to 85 percent of Democrats and about half of whites. If CBC members acted on the will of their constituents, all but possibly one Black congressperson would vote for speedy withdrawal. (Only west-central Georgia’s Rep. Sanford Bishop could be considered vulnerable to a rural white backlash.)

However, even if Minority Leader Pelosi got out of the way, it is doubtful that the CBC as a body would endorse a Murtha-like position in the absence of virtual unanimity, and there can be no unanimity so long as a DLC-centered clique of Black congresspersons is allowed to wield a veto within the Caucus. As a consequence of its vain striving for unanimity, the Congressional Black Caucus cannot even express the conscience of its own constituents, much less the congress as a whole.

CBC chairman Mel Watt (NC) tried mightily on Friday to put a unified face on the CBC. In tones far more strident than usual, he attempted to “make clear” the Caucus’ position “so that…our votes tonight will not be misinterpreted or mischaracterized.” He then proceeded to paper over the fact that the CBC as a body has not taken an effective anti-war position.

Watt said “members of the Congressional Black Caucus reaffirmed our statement of principles as to the war against Iraq” and he sought to give the impression that the CBC had found unity in October of 2002, when the House and Senate gave George Bush the powers he used to invade Iraq, five months later. In reality, four CBC members voted for war: Harold Ford, Jr. (TN), William Jefferson (LA), Albert Wynn (MD) and Sanford Bishop (GA). At the time, BC called them “the Four Eunuchs of War” because they “are like the Sultan’s eunuchs, for whom submission is a trait of character; the mere presence of Power dominates them, completely.”

The “principles as to the war against Iraq” presumably refers to the CBC Special Order of September, 2003, restated by then chairman Elijah Cummings (MD) in August, 2004:

“… the Congressional Black Caucus has steadfastly opposed a unilateral first strike action by the United States without a clearly demonstrated and imminent threat of attack on the United States.

“It has always been the position of the Congressional Black Caucus that a unilateral first strike would undermine the moral authority of the United States, result in substantial loss of life, destabilize the Mideast region and undermine our nation’s ability to address unmet domestic priorities. Sadly, this tragic prediction has come true.”

That’s a position much of the corporate DLC feel free to spout, without ever calling for a definitive withdrawal. However, it’s all the DLC-centered clique in the Caucus will sign off on, and they have an effective veto. Unanimity, when unattainable based on progressive principles, becomes a weapon in the hands of a small, corrupted minority.

Individual Black lawmakers in forefront

There is a parallel between Nancy Pelosi’s protection of Democratic war-continuers and a CBC that is stifled by the perceived need for unanimity. However, this commentary is meant to point out a practical weakness in CBC institutional behavior, not to besmirch the large majority of Black lawmakers, many of whom are also frustrated that the Caucus is no longer able to consistently act as a true “conscience of the congress” – and a voice that reflects the actual state of Black political opinion. As individuals, Black congresspersons are in the forefront of whatever progressive activity occurs in the U.S. House, including efforts to end the Iraq war and occupation.

In May, 2005, Rep. Lynn Woolsey’s (D-CA) amendment called on the president to “develop a plan as soon as practicable after the date of the enactment of this Act to provide for the withdrawal of United States Armed Forces from Iraq; and transmit to the congressional defense committees a report that contains the plan….” Somehow – and to Nancy Pelosi’s apparent surprise – the rather tame amendment to a defense bill escaped from committee for a surprise vote on the floor of the House. Despite Pelosi’s last ditch opposition, five Republicans and a majority of Democrats (122) voted with Woolsey – 31 of those votes came from the CBC.

The seven Black Democrats that voted against Woolsey’s “Withdrawal of U.S. Armed Forces from Iraq” bill were: Sanford Bishop (GA), Corrine Brown (FL), G.K. Butterfield (NC), Artur Davis (AL), Harold Ford (TN), David Scott (GA), Kendrick Meek (FL).

Reps. Harold Ford (TN) and Sanford Bishop (GA) were among the original “Four Eunuchs of War.”

The two other War Powers Act supporters of 2002, William Jefferson (LA) and Albert Wynn (MD), voted for Woolsey’s “withdrawal” amendment in 2005.

Of the 65 congresspersons that formed the Out of Iraq Caucus in July of this year, 25 were Black, including five of the eight founders: Maxine Waters (CA), John Conyers (MI), Charlie Rangel (NY), Barbara Lee (CA), John Lewis (GA), and Corrine Brown (FL). Rep. Brown had months before voted against the Woolsey amendment.

Original 2002 “eunuch” Albert Wynn, a DLC activist who two and a half years later supported Woolsey, also joined the Out of Iraq Caucus. However, War Powers “eunuch” William Jefferson stayed away.

Here is the irreducible core of pro-war CBC members, all of them either DLC or Blue Dog Democrats:

Sanford Bishop (GA)

Artur Davis (AL)

Harold Ford (TN)

David Scott (GA)

These men are the worst malefactors in the CBC on issues of war and peace, as well as social and economic justice. They and a second tier of four to six other corrupted Black lawmakers combine to prevent the Black Caucus from carrying out its historic mission. Harold Ford’s Memphis district is no more pro-war than any other Black urban center – but Ford refuses to represent his constituents. Artur Davis hails from the Black Belt of Alabama, the ground on which Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. built an edifice of struggle for justice and peace – yet Davis sides with corporate warmongers. David Scott’s suburban Atlanta district is demographically little different than Rep. Cynthia McKinney’s neighboring district – but his vision bears no relationship to the historical Black Political Consensus.

If the CBC’s hands are tied by an implicit veto from these men, who are surrogates for forces antithetical to the interests and opinions of African Americans, then the Caucus will fail itself, and all of us. Rep. Mel Watt and the chairpersons that succeed him will repeatedly find themselves hamstrung by the worst elements that corporate money can buy.

Let the Black Caucus be Black!

It’s bad enough that Black folks’ political fates are currently tied to a Democratic leadership that cares more about preserving a false and do-nothing party “unity” than ending a war. But it is unthinkable that we will continue to allow the Black polity to be paralyzed and polluted by a bought-and-paid-for element. At the very least, African Americans must protect their own institutions. Do the opinions of 95 percent of Black America have no standing, even in the Congressional Black Caucus? Can a gaggle of hustlers be allowed to veto the deepest aspirations of 40 million people?

Clearly, the handful (plus a few fingers) of “derelicts” in the CBC must be voted out by the citizens of their districts. The infestation requires great agitation, organization, fund raising, and the application of lots of political Raid to get them scurrying in the open. The CBC Monitor’s September Report Card – which will be updated in late January – draws “bright lines” that point to who should be acknowledged and rewarded, and who should be targeted for electoral extinction. BC is told that a Black Progressive PAC will soon emerge to help make examples of the worst offenders. And there is no worse offense than prolonging an illegal war, a crime against peace.

It does not help that Nancy Pelosi, a former leader of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, now spends much of her time sabotaging congressional peace initiatives – especially when these initiatives are disproportionately Black. But the Congressional Black Caucus is hampered by its own attempts at discipline, hitched to an ideal of unanimity that became counterproductive as soon as the corporate money started to roll into selected members’ coffers.

A “sense of the House” resolution does not require a unanimous vote. Neither should an in-caucus “sense of the CBC” resolution. Speak Truth to Power – the truth that 95 percent of Black folks know. Out of Iraq Now!

Let Iraq be Iraq! And Let the Black Caucus be Black!

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Text of Rep. Cynthia McKinney’s statement to the U.S. House

November 18, 2005

Mr. Speaker:

The Republicans in this House have done a heinous thing: they have insulted one of the deans of this House in an unthinkable and unconscionable way.

They took his words and contorted them; they took his heartfelt sentiments and spun them. They took his resolution and deformed it: in a cheap effort to silence dissent in the House of Representatives.

The Republicans should be roundly criticized for this reprehensible act. They have perpetrated a fraud on the House of Representatives just as they have defrauded the American people.

By twisting the issue around, the Republicans are trying to set a trap for the Democrats. A “no” vote for this Resolution will obscure the fact that there is strong support for withdrawal of US forces from Iraq. I am voting “yes” on this Resolution for an orderly withdrawal of US forces from Iraq despite the convoluted motives behind the Republican Resolution. I am voting to support our troops by bringing them home now in an orderly withdrawal.

Sadly, if we call for an end to the occupation, some say that we have no love for the Iraqi people, that we would abandon them to tyrants and thugs.

Let us consider some history. The Republicans make great hay about Saddam Hussein’s use of chemical weapons against the Iranians and the Kurds. But when that attack was made in 1988, it was Democrats who moved a resolution to condemn those attacks, and the Reagan White House quashed the bill in the Senate, because at that time the Republicans considered Saddam one of our own.

So in 1988, who abandoned the Iraqi people to tyrants and thugs?

In voting for this bill, let me be perfectly clear that I am not saying the United States should exit Iraq without a plan. I agree with Mr. Murtha that security and stability in Iraq should be pursued through diplomacy. I simply want to vote yes to an orderly withdrawal from Iraq. And let me explain why.

Prior to its invasion, Iraq had not one (not one!) instance of suicide attacks in its history. Research shows a 100% correlation between suicide attacks and the presence of foreign combat troops in a host country. And experience also shows that suicide attacks abate when foreign occupation troops are withdrawn. The US invasion and occupation has destabilized Iraq and Iraq will only return to stability once this occupation ends.