Some Democratic Senators are lackluster, some are unreliable, and some, like Dianne Feinstein, are unpredictable. Civil Rights groups like People for the American Way and the Alliance for Justice were blindsided Thursday when Feinstein voted for another of Trent Lott’s Brooks Brothers suited racists to assume a lifetime appointment to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.
People for the American Way, The Alliance for Justice, and The Leadership Conference for Civil Rights can usually be depended upon to bring their A game and effectively rally folk to block bigots of this caliber. They failed this time. However, the fight isn’t over. There is the option to mount a filibuster on the floor; the problem is that once nominations are reported out of committee, they become harder to kill.
For unfathomable reasons, Dianne Feinstein has made a deal with the Devil and punched the ticket for one of his malevolent minions to serve for life as a federal judge. For a San Francisco Democrat, there is nothing liberal about cutting deals with a man who reveres segregationists and longs for the good ole days of massive resistance.
All of this for a judge who makes light of the fact that he ordered the reinstatement of a white female state employee that called a black female co-worker, “a good ole nigger.” As I’ve said before, there is no circumstance where it is ever acceptable for a white person to call a black person a nigger in freakin’ Mississippi. Never. For this betrayal, I shall resurrect the moniker given to her by local Marxists during a dispute over the confederate flag flying at the civic center in San Francisco: Dixie Dianne.
During her tenure as Mayor of San Francisco, the Marxists had the temerity to oppose the flying of the confederate flag because it is a symbol of hate and white supremacy and they cut down the flagpole rather than allow her to have the flag hoisted up again.
African Americans are a beleaguered but cohesive minority in California and it is time for the progressives in our community to let Dianne know how we feel about her collusion with the enemy. If you live in California, you can call her Senate Offices at 202 224 2841. This should be Dixie Dianne’s last term given her advanced age, but if she runs one mo’gin in 2012, somebody should primary her.
Dixie Dianne’s betrayal has had one fortuitous consequence. She has provided the Democratic frontrunners in this contest one more opportunity to prove their progressive fealty or their politically expedient treachery. Judge Southwick’s nomination is coming to the Senate floor whether we like it or not. If the Chairman of the Judiciary Committee and the Majority Leader green light a filibuster, it will happen. Even if they don’t concur, Hillary and Barack have the power to force one. We will see if they oppose this bastard because they have too or because his nomination is an offensive stench in the nostrils of freedom loving people everywhere.
Reading an obligatory statement into the record will not do. Voting against cloture will not do. Putting up an aggressive fight and making several lengthy statements on the floor and to the media that make it clear that their opposition is not merely for show; and their active and visible participation in floor strategy that kills this nomination, that’s what we must demand.
I’ve had family in Mississippi since about 1840. My mother’s family was enslaved on the Watkins and Dove plantations near Newton and Jasper counties. This fight is personal for me. Upon entering Mississippi, one notices the distinct smell of oppression in the air. It is unlike anything you’ve ever experienced if you weren’t raised in the south. Just a few days in Mississippi changed me in ways I still can’t explain. What black people have endured over the course of the state’s history is really mind blowing. Elevating another instrument and facilitator of that same oppression will not be tolerated. Enough is enough.