House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) move to oust Rep. William Jefferson (D-LA) from the powerful Ways and Means committee may well “blow up in their face,”  said CBC Chairman Mel Watt (D-NC). The CBC has twice rallied around Jefferson, who is under FBI corruption investigation involving alleged receipt of bribes. Watt says Pelosi is “making up rules and applying them to one person” – a Black Man.

Watt certainly has a point in terms of congressional precedent. However, Watt’s newfound willingness to stand for principle, and to rally the Caucus as a body in support of a besieged member is out of character, and is itself, unprecedented, in his contradictory and lackluster tenure as “leader” of the 42 Black members of the House. Solidarity was nowhere in evidence when Watt did Pelosi’s bidding, in the attempted humiliation and isolation of fellow CBC member Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-GA) this past April.

Pelosi persuaded Watt to demand McKinney apologize for the incident involving the Capitol Hill police.  Watt took servitude to House Leadership a step further, insisting that Caucus members refrain from standing with McKinney in solidarity as she delivered the forced apology on the House floor.

In this instance, Watt was an agent of CBC solidarity with Pelosi, rather than their own sister member.

Watt warned of a potential Black voter black lash. “You’ve got a whole base of people out there who believe that the Democratic Party takes them for granted already.” Yet, it is Watt who has conditioned Nancy Pelosi to expect obedience from her poodle. For the North Carolina Democrat to rear up on his hind legs, pretending to be a pit bull must come as shock to Democratic Leadership and Caucus members alike. He has done Pelosi’s bidding while failing to rally the CBC to develop their own agenda.  During Watt’s tenure, the Caucus has fallen into total political disarray, unable to unite around progressive legislation as its founders intended. It is this political disarray that has allowed a faction of the Caucus to hold corporate interests above those of their constituents, most conspicuously including William Jefferson.

These are strange times, when the CBC finds its rare moment of near-unanimity in defense of a member whose multiple financial dealings earned him the nickname “Dollar Bill.” We wished that such bold leadership had been exerted on Rep. McKinney’s behalf, and when large numbers of CBC members voted with Republicans on the Bankruptcy Bill, CAFTA, Estate Tax Repeal, and now the COPE (against Internet Neutrality) bill.

If the CBC wishes to continue to promote themselves as the “Conscience of the Congress,” then they should try to salvage what credibility they have left by paying attention to their own consciences and not engaging in the very double-standards among themselves that they willingly denounce when other people do it to them.

Leutisha Stills can be reached at [email protected]. The CBC Monitor's website is cbcmonitor.voxunion.com.

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