Black Republican Response and Tavis' Debate

In a previous post, GOP Leading Candidates Snub Tavis' Forum at Morgan State, I pointed out that Rudy, Flipping Mitt and Straight Talk Express had all bagged on attending Tavis Smiley's All American Presidential Forum in Baltimore at Morgan State University. Since then Law & Order Man has dropped out too.

I wondered where were the responses from the Black Republicans and Black Conservative Bloggers?

Until then, only Michael Steele and Shay from Booker Rising had responded.

Found this article at HuffingtonPost.Com on the Black GOP response:

Some key sections:

"Reaction among black conservatives is divided over news this week that Republican presidential frontrunners had pulled out of a long-scheduled debate at a historically black college.

"Many people think that Republicans don't care about the black community," Don Scoggins, President of Republicans for Black Empowerment, told the Huffington Post. "I know that's not true, but it's hard to dispel when have we major candidates who say they have scheduling conflicts."

Tavis Smiley, a PBS TV host who is moderating the debate, earlier expressed doubts that Republican front runners had scheduling conflicts that prevented them from attending. His skepticism was shared by Scoggins of Republicans for Black Empowerment.

This wasn't something that just came up, this has been planned for months," Scoggins said, noting that the Morgan State debate was announced at the same time Democrats debated at Howard University in Washington DC in June.

True. They've known about it for at least six months, and couldn't find time to go?

Uh huh.

Other black conservatives were far more forgiving.

"I truly believe that Fred Thompson, Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney, and John McCain can't make it because of scheduling conflicts," said black conservative pundit La Shawn Barber on her blog Wednesday. "I'm hopelessly naïve, I guess."

I guess naive is a word for it.

But the leader of another black Republican organization said Scoggins' disappointment was misplaced.

"The message the Democrats are sending to black children is that they should celebrate their victimhood rather than get a good education, become prosperous, and god forbid vote for a Republican," said Frances Rice, the chairwoman of the National Black Republican Association. "If you do that, they will castigate you as an Uncle Tom, an Aunt Jemima, or as a House N-word, when it's the Democrats who are devastating our communities. That is what we should be talking about."

She argued that the debate has been stacked against Republican candidates.

"I have no idea what Tavis Smiley will do, but I know his behavior and conduct in the past has been highly supportive of Democrats, and highly critical of Republicans," Rice added. "There are people who just want an opportunity to beat up on Republicans."

HUH?

Um, ok. Tavis didn't even take questions for this one, which, for me, made it already suspect, and attempting to bend over backwards for the GOP. But, it's not like they would be surprised by the questions. He made it clear that it would be based on The Covenant. And, is Ms. Rice trying to say that the GOP has no solutions of its own for the problems outlined in The Covenant? Why should the Black community give the GOP a chance if they're not willing to present their own ideas to problems that have been presented to them?

This is a GOP -centered event. A time where the GOP candidates can present THEIR ideas and solutions to a captive Black audience.


I told you that some Black GOPers would become creative in their explanations as to why it's ok that their candidates don't show up.

I have been proposing my own idea for a debate though: since the GOPers only seem to want to debate when the 'Fix Is In', why don't THEY take the CBC/Fox News Debate Slot? Can't fix it anymore than that.