Or does it know but doesn’t want its readers to know?
The Times headline must have been labored over intensely to come up with a phrasing that didn’t read immediately as racially biased, since what is being described is racial bias, if standard “good” racial bias : “Democrats Aim for a Breakthrough for Black Women in the Senate.” The “breakthrough” is electing black women rather than white women or men, meaning that the party is declaring a preference for candidates based on gender and color. Funny, that was called bigotry when I was a lad. But black women are better than white women or any kind of man. Or they deserve success and power more. Or something: I better read my DEI manual again.
But never mind: it was the beginning of the article that struck me like a John Wayne punch in the jaw:
Carol Moseley Braun, one of only two Black women to have been elected to the Senate in U.S. history, was in Paris on Wednesday when she was informed that another Black woman, Angela Alsobrooks, had won the Democratic nomination for an open Senate seat in Maryland.
“Praise the Lord,” she said with relief and surprise. “That’s wonderful.”
…“It’s been a long time coming,” said Ms. Moseley Braun, who became the first Black female senator when she was elected from Illinois in 1992 and now serves as chairwoman of the United States African Development Foundation. The second, from California, is now the vice president, Kamala Harris. A third, Laphonza Butler, Democrat of California, was appointed to fill a vacant seat, but is not running for re-election.
Ah, Carol Moseley Braun! (That’s her above.)The first, “historic” black female Senator was, not to beat around the bush, a serial crook, protected by the corrupt Democratic establishment under Bill Clinton, and now by the New York Times, because anything that undermines the DEI, “good discrimination” narrative isn’t news “fit to print,” or in this instance, history fit to print.
When Braun was running for the Senate in 1992, she was elected despite the revelation that she and her siblings had illegally taken and split a $28,750 inheritance that was designated to go to their mother, then a nursing home resident who needed the money to reimburse Medicaid. Illinois voters are inured to such shenanigans in their elected officials’ past, though. There was also evidence of Braun committing bank fraud, bribery and other federal crimes when she was the Cook County Recorder of Deeds.
She and her then- campaign manager and fiance, Kgosie Matthews, may have diverted $281,000 in campaign contributions to their personal use: a local TV investigation found support for allegations that the couple spent almost $70,000 on clothes, $64,000 on travel to Hawaii, Europe, and Africa), $25,000 for two Jeeps, $12,000 for stereo equipment, and $18,000 for jewelry including nearly$10,000 in cash at an Aspen jewelry store during a “fundraising trip.” Matthews served on Moseley Braun’s campaign staff in violation of U.S. immigration law, and of course there is that Fani Willis-style nepotism thingy. A native of South Africa and former lobbyist for the Nigerian government, Matthews had his romantic partner pay him a salary of $15,000 a month during hercampaign.
Move along, nothing to see here… the Clinton Federal Election Commission never did find out exactly what happened to the missing contributions, claiming that it didn’t have the budget or staff to complete the hunt. Clinton’s Justice Department under Janet Reno repeatedly refused to impanel a grand jury regarding Moseley Braun’s suspicious activities even though the IRS requested it. She was a rising star in the party, after all.
The IRS also asked the Justice Department to investigate Matthews, but he fled the U.S. despite owing debts of over $200,000. Before he flew the metaphorical coop, Moseley Braun made a private trip to Nigeria with him, and met with the nation’s then-dictator Sani Abacha without notifying or receiving approval from the State Department, though Abacha and his nation were under U.S. sanctions for human rights violations. Then the Senator returned to the U.S. and defended Abacha’s human rights record in Congress.
Hmmmmm.
It is stating the obvious to infer that the Jackie Robinson principle holding that black trailblazers help American society most by demonstrating exemplary character and performance escaped Carol Moseley Braun’s attention.
When she was running for re-election, George Will wrote a column in the Washington Post recounting the dubious record of the historic Senator from Illinois. She responded by calling Will a racist, saying, “I think because he couldn’t say nigger, he said corrupt” and added, “I mean this very sincerely from the bottom of my heart: He can take his hood and put it back on again, as far as I’m concerned.”
Here’s a question: how does a disgraced politician like Moseley Braun with a history of mishandling funds get selected as chairwoman of the United States African Development Foundation? Could it be because her past corruption has been so carefully scrubbed from the record that nobody knows about it, or because her kind of corruption is endemic to the political culture, especially in the African-American community?
The New York Times could have played this story straight without presenting a really bad ex-U.S. Senator as someone whose opinion we should respect. It could have said that the Democratic Party was hoping to elect another black female U.S. Senator so the African American community could finally have the first one it could be legitimately proud of after Carol Moseley Braun and—-ugh—Kamala Harris.
That would be historic.
[Note 1: WordPress’s bot thinks this post should be tagged “Donald Trump,” who isn’t mentioned or alluded to at all. See? Even artificial intelligence is Trump-obsessed…]
[Note 2: I think I fixed all of the assorted misspellings of “Moseley.”]
Ethics Alarms 
“But black women are better than white women or any kind of man.”
This is probably the most annoying trope in the progressive toolbox. Gays and lesbians were not just equal to heterosexuals during the gay marriage push, they were actually vastly superior beings. Just ask any Hollywood actor or actress. They told us so. And transgender people are not just people like the rest of us, they are vastly superior and admirable beyond belief. Muslims are not just deserving of equality; they are to be deferred to because they are superior to Westerners. As I said, really annoying.
Earth to progressives: Cut it out.
“Illinois voters are inured to such shenanigans in their elected officials’ past, though.”
I had to laugh at this. We had an intern one summer who came from rural Illinois. Around the proverbial water cooler one day, while we were discussing politics, he piped up saying that it wasn’t until he went to college that he found out it wasn’t mandated that an Illinois governor went to prison after serving his gubernatorial term. He just assume all that time that there must be something written into Illinois law that demanded the governor be imprisoned after his term expired, since so many did.
“Could it be because her past corruption has been so carefully scrubbed from the record that nobody knows about it, or because her kind of corruption is endemic to the political culture, especially in the African-American community?“
Given the sheer amount of corruption we’ve seen in politics, I want to suggest that maybe we’re seeing so many corrupt black politicians in the limelight because everything is about race anymore. Thus the corrupt white politicians are being glossed over. However, and I would think this deserves some research, I wonder if believing blacks deserve restitution from whites (even from whites who were never slave-owners in states that never allowed slavery) creates an entitlement mentality that amplifies the already endemic political corruption?
I wonder if believing blacks deserve restitution from whites (even from whites who were never slave-owners in states that never allowed slavery) creates an entitlement mentality that amplifies the already endemic political corruption?
I don’t think there’s any doubt about it. When Marion Barry was happily running amuck as a popular, in some ways effective, openly corrupt mayor in D.C., his supporters would even say this: “It’s about time a black man had the power to help his people the way all those crooked white politicians helped theirs!” And Barry was a local hero as a result. Rep. Adam Clayton Powell was another prominent example.
I think it’s an African thing. Governments in Africa are viewed simply as pinatas to be beaten with bat so all the goodies fall out and can be scooped up and stuffed into one’s pockets. It’s called, “Getting over.” It’s the continental sport. Everybody does it.
I think we can put O.J. Simpson in the same class as Barry and Powell in terms of what I think we might call restorative injustice.