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  1. #1
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    Black activists sing Reid's praises

    Gee seems to be a comman theme..didn't this happen while back only for OB????


    Jan. 15, 2010
    Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

    Black activists sing Reid's praises

    Senator's re-election event scheduled before brouhaha over 'Negro dialect' comment

    By LAURA MYERS
    LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
    Watch the video


    Third-graders from Rainbow Dreams Academy sing during the launch Thursday of African-Americans for Sen. Harry Reid at the Culinary Training Academy in North Las Vegas. Standing in the rear are, from left, Pastor Robert Fowler of Victory Missionary Baptist Church, Clark County Commissioner Lawrence Weekly, Democratic political strategist Donna Brazile, state Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford, 100 Black Women President Hannah Brown and civil rights leader Bob Bailey.



    Black leaders preparing to speak at Thursday's kickoff of "African Americans for Harry Reid" included, from left, Pastor Robert Fowler, County Commissioner Lawrence Weekly, Democratic strategist Donna Brazile and state Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford.



    Sen. Harry Reid

    It felt more like a religious revival than a political rally, with shouts of "Amen" filling the air. A choir of third-graders raised their voices in song before a Baptist preacher led a prayer.

    "We're here this afternoon to pray for Senator Harry Reid," Pastor Robert Fowler of Victory Missionary Baptist Church said Thursday. "We pray he'll be judged more by his record than his rhetoric."



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    "Amen!" several people cried from the congregation, in this case the first meeting of African-Americans for Sen. Harry Reid and the kickoff of what activists described as the revival of the successful Democratic movement in Nevada that helped elect Barack Obama president in 2008.

    The Obama machine that registered 100,000 new Democrats in the state is back. This time it's working to save Reid's Senate seat and his four decades' long political career with the help of the national party that sees the Senate majority leader as key to passing Obama's agenda in Congress.

    Donna Brazile, the Democrats' most prominent black female operative, made the case to a crowd of about 400 blacks from all walks of life.

    "I'm going to stand up for Harry, and I'm going to fight for him," Brazile said, dismissing recent Republican attempts to paint him as racist as an effort to find a "wedge issue" to divide Democrats.

    The vice chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee noted that Reid has a grade "A" voting record with the NAACP and he has a history of backing civil and equal rights issues dating back to the 1960s civil rights movement.

    "Stand up for a fighter, a warrior, a good, honest, decent man, a person who doesn't look at the color of our skin but the content of our character," Brazile said, referencing civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. "He would be proud of us for what we have done and what we are prepared to do."

    If all is not forgiven, at least it's forgotten when it comes to black Democratic supporters and Reid's description of Obama as electable because he's light-skinned and has a ''Negro dialect'' he can use or loose at will.

    Reid's private remark was revealed last week in a new 2008 campaign book.

    Obama accepted Reid's apology, as did dozens of black leaders at the local, state and national levels.

    Although the timing seemed beneficial to Reid, Thursday's event was scheduled before his remark came to light.

    Bonnie Juniel, who came to the event to see Brazile, said she has been supporting Reid for 40 years and is ready to help get out the vote for him again, although she was disappointed in the language he used while speaking to the two authors of the book, "Game Change."

    "There hasn't been anyone around that's done a better job than him for Nevada. But he isn't keeping up with the times. He still sounds like an old country boy," Juniel said of the 70-year-old Reid.

    Juniel said she was "utterly shocked" by his use of the word "Negro," but she said she doesn't hold it against him because she said other white people have said and thought the same thing.

    "I think it was an innocent comment, but it shows he doesn't have any serious dialogue with the African-American community and only knows black politicians," she said. "If he had any real black friends, they would tell him, 'Hey, Harry, don't say that kind of shit.' "

    Darnell Pollard, who attended the event with his wife, Violet, said Reid spoke the truth in suggesting it's easier for a light-skinned black man to get elected than one with dark skin.

    "There was nothing racist about what he said: 'Go find somebody who's light and damn near white to run for office,' " Pollard said. "We got a little bit of trouble facing up to our history."

    Violet Pollard shook her head and softly added, "I think it will take more time" for America to leave behind its past of slavery and racial discrimination that separated blacks and whites.

    Howard Watts, a 22-year-old University of Nevada, Las Vegas student, was among activists attracted by Obama's campaign. He said Democrats overlook Reid's frequent rhetorical gaffes because they believe in Obama's agenda -- which is now Reid's agenda -- including health care reform.

    "Obama inspired a whole new group of activists," said Watts, who himself is of mixed raced with his mother of European stock and his father from African-American. "I'm here because I support the work that Harry Reid is trying to do."

    William "Bob" Bailey, who was on the front lines of the civil rights movement in Southern Nevada, said that in the early days there weren't a lot of black lawyers and most white lawyers wouldn't take on tough cases as blacks fought for equal treatment.

    Bailey told the story of a black police officer who passed a test to become a captain but was denied the job although he was the best candidate.

    So black leaders approached Reid.

    "Not only did he take the case, but he won," said Bailey, a Republican. "We found that Harry Reid was supportive of working with us when it wasn't popular."

    As a lawmaker, Reid also was responsible for the appointment of Johnnie Rawlinson, the first black woman to sit on the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, Bailey noted. And he said the senator has worked with Howard University in Washington, D.C., to sponsor internships to diversify congressional staffs.

    Other speakers at the lunch in the Culinary Training Academy in North Las Vegas noted Reid's support for the 2006 renewal of the Voting Rights Act, shoring up his bona fides on race to shore up his black and Democratic support.

    State Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford, one of Reid's proteges, said Democrats now hold an 80,000 voter advantage over Republicans in Nevada thanks to the Obama registration effort. Blacks make up about 13 percent of the electorate and 8 percent of the population, Horsford said.

    "We need to get Senator Reid elected to get President Obama's agenda passed," Horsford said in an interview. "This race is as important as the 2008 race was for the president and for Nevada."

    Support only from the party faithful won't be enough for a Reid victory, however, since early polls show him running far behind his potential Republican opponents among independents.

    The latest January poll commissioned by the Las Vegas Review-Journal shows Reid losing the overall vote to Republicans Danny Tarkanian, Sue Lowden and Sharron Angle thanks, in part, to his unpopularity among nonpartisans. Reid would get about one-quarter of the independent vote, according to the Mason-Dixon poll. GOP rivals would walk away with more than half the nonpartisans.

    Democrats don't appear to have a well-honed strategy yet to win over independents.

    Horsford and Brazile said it was a matter of educating swing voters about the value of health care reform, the economic stimulus and other measures aimed at pulling the nation out of a recession that has hit Nevada with record home foreclosures and high unemployment rates.

    The Republican Party in Nevada seems to be in disarray because of divisions in the leadership, which could give the Democrats breathing room to organize before November.

    "When you get the facts out and not the spin, the Republicans won't win out," Horsford said.

    Contact Laura Myers at lmyers@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2919.
    http://www.lvrj.com/news/black-activist ... 66182.html


    Kathyet

  2. #2
    Senior Member miguelina's Avatar
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    The old Reid was a better man than the new Reid. He is being judged on his record and his record is abyssmal. Time for him to retire.
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