Why Blacks Should Care About The US Attorney Scandal

Think about it.

Although evidence of a direct connection between the fired U.S. Attorney’s refusal to bring voter fraud cases is incomplete, there is every indication that a great deal more information will surface if congressional investigators are given a free hand. Since 2000, the Bush Administration has used the Justice Department Civil Rights Division to tweak law enforcement to advance Republican political fortunes in closely contested states by attacking black voters. In every election under the current Administration, the Republican Party has funded voter suppression programs aimed at African Americans and other reliably Democratic populations. Not surprisingly, the Justice Department has turned a blind eye to these legally questionable programs. At the same time, the Bush Justice Department has approved Republican-backed redistricting decisions in Mississippi and Texas that have disadvantaged Blacks and Latinos and benefited white Republicans; plans that many non-partisan, career Justice Department attorneys who reviewed them believed violated the Voting Rights Act. It has also given its blessing to a Republican voter ID bill out of Georgia that one federal judge likened to a poll tax. Bush appointees in the Justice Department have also decreased voting rights enforcement and brought the first “reverse discrimination” case under the Voting Rights Act. In this unprecedented suit, Justice Department attorneys charged the black Democratic leadership of Noxubee County, Mississippi with violating the rights of the white minority. This pattern of abuse in the Civil Rights Division suggests that the Bush Administration is in not squeamish about using the Justice Department for political ends. It is only common sense, then, to suspect that the Bush Administration would try to use the rest of the Justice Department in a similar fashion.

In light of this pattern of deceptive and illegal behavior, black folk should not only be demanding that the White House cooperate with Congress in the investigation of the above mentioned firings, but that Congress broaden the investigation. After all, the Bush Administration’s use of the law enforcement functions of the executive branch for partisan political purposes has not been limited to the Justice Department. Only months before the 2004 election, the IRS initiated an audit of the NAACP, one of the largest voter registration organizations in the black community. The official explanation for this action was that the organization’s Board Chairman, Julian Bond, criticized the President and his policies in a speech, thereby violating the ban on non-profits endorsing or funding candidates for office. The investigation has since been dropped for lack of evidence, precedent, and, to be frank, legality.

So, as the House and Senate Judiciary Committees move forward with their investigations into the firing of those eight U.S. Attorneys, be sure to tune out the Administration propaganda about executive privilege – which has so often been used by Presidents past and present, Democrat and Republican to cover up illegal acts. Support those individuals like Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), and Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) who are seeking a full and public airing of the facts by demanding that those White House officials involved in the firings give sworn testimony in an open committee hearing. And be sure to write to your members of Congress and tell them that you are interested in widening the hearings to explore all of the ways that the Bush Administration has sought to make the nation’s law enforcement agencies tools of the Republican Party. Your access to the ballot in the next election could very well hang in the balance.