Why Republican Party’s Campaign Campaign Against Eric Holder Isn’t Working

As the Republican National Committee steps up the drumbeat against Eric Holder, a former Deputy U.S. Attorney-General and a top adviser to U.S. Senator Barach Obama, a key question arises?

Has the party of Abraham Lincoln gone off the rails?

The query is important because of the history of the Republicans.

After all, the Party once epitomized the things we considered decent and great about political organizations in a society struggling to deal with freedom for its citizens.

We say struggling because with millions of black folks living under the evils of slavery during the 19th century, Lincoln’s party led the country into a civil war that eventually ended up with the abolition of civilization’s most abhorrent practice: the keeping people in bondage.

Of course, that happened long before the Democrats came to their collective senses and saw the virtues in human rights and civil and political liberties.

In addition, it was decades ahead of the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s that finally broke the last remaining links in the chain that for almost a century after the Reconstruction period in the United States had kept Blacks in a different state of bondage, denial of the fundamental right to an education; blocked life-saving health care to people because of the color of their skin; restricted access to decent and affordable housing through the use of restrictive covenants; and impeded their march to full participation in the electoral process.
The Supreme Court’s ruling in the historic Brown versus the Board of Education decision in 1950s; the passage of the Voting Rights Act; the enactment of fair housing laws and the use of affirmative action to open the doors of opportunities to ethnic minorities, all measures that Blacks fought for and in many cases died for on America’s streets recently culminated in the last six weeks in a momentous and exciting chapter in America’s history: the nomination of a Black man as the presidential standard-bearer of a major party, the Democrats, in the November elections of 2008.

While no one would have expected that the Republicans would have accepted the selection of Obama, whether he was white or Black, without staging a vigorous battle to prevent him from moving into the White House in January, the personal attacks, the vilification and the smear tactics targeting the candidate and his wife, Michelle, have gone far beyond the pale.

But then, we have come to accept most unpleasant and often unacceptable forms of conduct from the Republicans. It’s the party which eight years ago sent its surrogates into Florida and New Jersey to discourage Blacks from voting for Vice President Al Gore. It’s also the party which has sanctioned torture at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, Iraq and elsewhere in the name of the war on terror; which has given the country and the world the most unpopular administration since President Herbert Hoover in the 1930s; launched an illegal war in Iraq that has caused the deaths of more than 4,000 soldiers and at least 100,000 Iraqis; squandered the nation’s resources leaving the next generation of taxpayers saddled with an awful debt. Now it has the gall to go after Eric Holder, simply because he may be in line for a top cabinet position in any Obama administration.
But what is it that they are accusing the noble American with Caribbean roots of doing?

Actually, the Republicans are going to the bottom of the proverbial barrel dredging up anything they can find to throw mud, hoping that something would stick. Chances are it’s not going to work because Holder, the son of West Indian parents hasn’t broken any laws, avoided any impropriety in and out of public office; and unlike many GOP operatives hasn’t been involved in any sleazy conduct.

In the absence of any perfidious action, the Republicans are lighting up public relations news wires, turning to the talk radio of right wing political zealots masquerading as commentators; and taking up hours of conservative television time, not to mention thousands of inches of newspaper and magazine print to convince people that Holder was unfit to advise Obama on his vice presidential running mate or to be a member of the nominee’s inner circle, the senior Working Group on National Security.

They are blaming him for everything, including the kitchen sink. For instance:

p “Holder defended the Right of the (U.S.) federal government to seize Elian Gonzalez, the six year old Cuban boy who was held against his will by relatives in Miami who wanted to prevent him from returning to his biological father in Cuba. The law courts backed up the position taken by Holder and the Clinton Administration in general and the Justice Department in particular. On the other hand, the courts have ruled against the Bush Administration’s denial of justice to “terror suspects” held in federal detention in and out of Cuba and the U.S..
p “Holder played a major role in the decision to grant clemency to 16 former members of the Puerto Rican “Armed Forces of National Liberation” almost a decade ago. But the Republicans have remained silent on the fact that the Bush White House has declined to bring to justice a Cuban known terrorist who law enforcement officials insist blew up a Cuban plane after it left Barbados in 1976, killing scores of Cubans, North Koreans and Guyanese.

p “Holder, a Barbadian immigrant’s son who grew up in Queens and received a law degree from Columbia (University), has played major roles in the probe of Democratic funny-money in the 1996 election, the sexgate scandal and the recommendation to President Clinton on whether to free FALN terrorists from jail,” according to the Republicans. But what about the billions of taxpayer’s dollars which have disappeared into the coffers of American corporations, including one which was once headed by Vice President Dick Cheney, after winning no-bid contracts to do work in Iraq, much of which was never completed.

p “Eric Holder Lobbied on Behalf of Global Crossing After the Company Had Accumulated nearly $12 million in Debt.” Big deal!

On and on goes the rubbish.

That explains why the anti-Holder campaign has failed to gain traction. The former judge in the nation’s capital, a decent and law-abiding man with a keen legal mind remains unmoved by the scurrilous attempt to damage his reputation. Unless the Republicans can come up with more potent ammunition, the politically driven demolition job isn’t going to work.

 

The Path To Success In Education University Of The West Indies And Medgar Evers College Join Hands

Most counselors insist a good marriage must have some essential ingredients.

They range from mature partners; common objectives; and an understanding of each other to a willingness to share and adapt.

Such factors seem to be present in the new link between the 60 year old University of the West Indies, UWI, with campuses in Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados and Brooklyn’s Medgar Evers College, MEC, of the City University of New York.

Both tertiary level educational institutions seem to be a good fit, a point made in a clear memorandum of understanding which they signed recently in New York and which was devoid of the convoluted language that passes for legal requirements.

Here’s how they put it: “As UWI is a regional university serving the English-speaking Caribbean population and MEC is the college most closely associated with the Caribbean-American community within the CUNY system and the New York City metropolitan area; both institutions recognize the value of partnering to produce a more holistic and comprehensive approach to issues plaguing Caribbean and Caribbean American communities.”
That’s simple enough.

It also explains the next conclusion: “Given the historical connection, contemporary relations, and shared heritage of their respective populations served, this partnership presents a unique opportunity to advance research and public policy.”

The MOU to which Dr. E. Nigel Harris, UWI Vice Chancellor, and Dr. Edison Jackson, quite appropriately and sensibly affixed their respective John Hancocks, their signatures, is a step in the right direction. It should not only help both schools to work in the best interest of the Caribbean communities over there and the Caribbean-American and African-Communities over here in New York, but it would demonstrate, quite forcibly the importance of a collaborative relationships that’s ground in the shared interest of human development.
For example, the agreement calls for the pursuit of common educational and research goals which are to focus on such areas as health disparities, crime and delinquency, gender disparities in educational achievement, migration policies, small business development and international trade. To get the job done, they are to exchange faculty and students, launch publications, host conferences and undertake staff development.

Not bad at all.

The bottom line in this strikingly important plan is to find workable “solutions for a variety of problems experienced” in the Caribbean communities at home and in New York City.

But why Medgar and the UWI in the first place?

In the six decades since the UWI was founded in 1948 with a handful of students, it has evolved into what Sir George Alleyne, its Chancellor, recently described in WashingtonD.C. as the pre-eminent contributor to “higher education in the Caribbean.”

For instance, over 75,000 graduates of the UWI “can be found all over the world,” Sir George accurately explained to a congregation at a 60th anniversary commemorative service.

Next is its research which covers a phenomenal range. From a new and improved steel pan and the effects of the Middle Passage on the health of descendants of slaves, high blood pressure is a case in point, to new food products to help address the need for food security in the Caribbean, the research is both useful and a pressing priority.

Then, there is the training of Caribbean leaders. Almost every island-nation and coastal state has had a UWI graduate as its head of government. No other region in the developing world can top that achievement.

Of course, there is the decisive role of sport in general and cricket in particular in Caribbean imagination. Small wonder, then, that the Chancellor felt confident enough to predict the other day that the “renascence of West Indies Cricket will be spurred by current development at the University.”

We couldn’t agree more. As a matter of fact, we can’t wait.

But MEC is not a second cousin in this partnership. The much younger school has had its own revival, if you will. Once tottering on the brink of being down-graded to the level of a community college, Medgar has emerged as an impressive jewel in the CUNY crown.

Just as important is the quality of education each student receives and the impressive links MEC has developed with the surrounding neighborhoods that provide its students. Its male initiative that is encouraging more and more young men to return to the classroom can be a useful model for the UWI, which like schools around the world, is struggling to attract and hold the attention of young men, who seem more interested in the instant gratification of an early pay check than the long-term foundation of a high quality education.

Put them all together and what emerges is a bond between like-minded educational institutions and their proud administrators.

Go forward UWI and Medgar, the Caribbean community in the City is behind you.