Arkansas Senator Mark Pryor has incurred the wrath of Democrats in his state by pushing Amy Russell, the wife of Bob Russell, his former chief of staff, for a federal judgeship. The problem is Amy Russell is said to be a Republican.
What's bothersome to the Arkansas Democrats is that while blacks have called for black judges to be nominated, both Pryor and the once-sitting-Senator Blanche Lincoln gave them, what one blog called "the finger." Now, here comes Russell, and while she's black and the wife of Pryor's former Chief of Staff, she's not a Democrat.
That's interesting and it shows how far racial politics have come. It's not enough that the judge be black, but also be a Democrat. Personally, that kind of concern may be a good thing because it signals the mainstreamizing of black politics. It also says that, as Eugene Robinson has written, we are "disintegrating" into several groups that don't associate with each other in the way we did in the past.
I'm not sure if that's a good thing at all.
I'm also not exactly certain that a black Republican judge is less desirable than a black Democratic judge. Both are likely to be rather conservative socially and sympathetic to those who may come up in life's short end, if you will.
Still, it places Obama in a bit of a pickle. The basic objective is to keep the party happy, so Obama should just punt on this one. It looks like Arkansas Dems are out for blood.
What's bothersome to the Arkansas Democrats is that while blacks have called for black judges to be nominated, both Pryor and the once-sitting-Senator Blanche Lincoln gave them, what one blog called "the finger." Now, here comes Russell, and while she's black and the wife of Pryor's former Chief of Staff, she's not a Democrat.
That's interesting and it shows how far racial politics have come. It's not enough that the judge be black, but also be a Democrat. Personally, that kind of concern may be a good thing because it signals the mainstreamizing of black politics. It also says that, as Eugene Robinson has written, we are "disintegrating" into several groups that don't associate with each other in the way we did in the past.
I'm not sure if that's a good thing at all.
I'm also not exactly certain that a black Republican judge is less desirable than a black Democratic judge. Both are likely to be rather conservative socially and sympathetic to those who may come up in life's short end, if you will.
Still, it places Obama in a bit of a pickle. The basic objective is to keep the party happy, so Obama should just punt on this one. It looks like Arkansas Dems are out for blood.