When are Republicans ever going to stop “turning the other cheek” when it comes to race?
Democrats are masters at putting Republicans on the defensive on the issue.
Case in point: Illinois Democrat Dick Durbin, the No. 2 Democrat in the U. S. Senate. He unleashed a disgusting, shameful, and vitriolic race-baiting attack on his GOP colleagues for delaying a confirmation vote on attorney general nominee Loretta Lynch.
“Why has the Senate Republican leadership decided to target this good woman and to stop her from serving as the first African-American attorney general of the United States of America? Loretta Lynch, the first African-American woman nominated to be attorney general, is asked to sit in the back of the bus.”
Meanwhile, as is typical of Democrats when it comes to race-baiting, he was backed up at a news conference by a group of seven female Democrats led by Sens. Patty Murray, D-Wash., Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., and representatives of several women’s groups.
And, not wanting to miss out on a race-baiting opportunity against Republicans, Rep. G.K. Butterfield, D-N.C., the chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, reportedly said, "I think race certainly can be considered a major factor in the delay.”
So why are Republicans holding up a vote on Lynch? Because Democrats refuse to act on a sex trafficking bill that would increase penalties for anyone convicted of slavery, human smuggling, and sexual exploitation of children. ISIS and Boko Haram would be pleased with their tactics to delay or kill such a bill.
Why? They are upset because a provision in the bill would prevent federal money from being used for an abortion.
When it comes to abortion, liberal Democrats and progressives will go to the ends of earth to protect their friends and allies in the abortion industry, even if it means throwing innocent sexually exploited children, many of them little girls, under the pro-abortion bus. For them, it is more important for girls and women to get abortions than cracking down on sex trafficking.
Durbin and the Democrats really have some gall. They use the race card against Republicans in order to protect and defend an abortion industry which has slaughtered millions of black and white babies for decades.
As Durbin’s colleague Mark Kirk, R-Ill., said: “They are making the same mistake that Democrats made in the 1850s when they defended slavery. We should all be neo-abolitionists here, to make sure that there is no right in America to enslave others using the Internet.”
Durbin’s despicable attempt to use the “back of the bus” analogy was disgusting. To exploit the imagery of a black heroine of the civil rights movement — Rosa Parks — was insensitive and demeaning.
What a racial hypocrite. As Fox News' Greta Van Susteren commented: “It's disgraceful and likewise painful when . . . Durbin, deliberately plays the race card — mean and cruel, really nasty."
She went on to point out that Durbin voted against Janice Rogers Brown, “an African-American woman” on the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. circuit and against Condoleezza Rice, “the first African-American woman secretary of state.”
In both instances, as Van Susteren stated, Republicans did not accuse Durbin of being racist for voting against them and concluded that maybe Durbin “should take a moment for personal reflection.”
These are not the only instances of Durbin’s liberal racial hypocrisy. Four years after voting against these two outstanding black females, Durbin helped kill the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program which allowed qualified low-income families to receive vouchers to go to the school of their choice just as the president’s daughters do.
If he is so interested in putting blacks at the “front of the bus,” why has he not gone to the Senate floor and condemned the massive black-on-black killings in Chicago?
All of this begs the question: Where were the Republicans? As is the usual case, the GOP establishment just turned the other cheek.
John McCain, R-Ariz., and Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, did fight back. McCain called Durbin’s remarks offensive and unnecessary,” and said that he owed the Senate, Lynch, and all Americans “an apology.” Grassley called the remarks “misguided, shameful, and . . . hypocritical"
That is not enough.
The Republicans should have counter-attacked the way Democrats do — full force. RNC Chairman Reince Priebus and Majority Leader Mitch McConnell should have called their own press conference — with Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., the Senate’s only black Republican, and newly elected black Republican members of the House Mia Love, R-Utah, and Will Hurd, R-Texas — to condemn Durbin in no uncertain terms for his insensitive and disgraceful remarks.
White liberals like Durbin, and blacks who join with them in playing fast and loose with race-baiting, should have a “conversation on race” with themselves. They are the problem.
Clarence V. McKee is president of McKee Communications, Inc., a government, political, and media relations consulting firm in Florida. He held several positions in the Reagan administration as well as in the Reagan presidential campaigns and has appeared on many national and local media outlets. Read more reports from Clarence V. McKee — Click Here Now.
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