Close ties to Blacks
Appointment of five Black cabinet members put him under microscope and made
him a target.
"You are the dumbest bunch of White boys I have ever seen," he reprimanded us for coming into the Oval Office as an all-White all-male group. He mentioned the names of several minority women whom he expected to have included the next time, "don't let it happen again."
"The Clinton Wars" Sidney Blumenthal, (Farrar, Strauss,
Giroux).
I always felt that former-President Bill Clinton's impeachment
had racist overtones, and it truly began to manifest itself immediately after
the appointments of some of his high ranking Black Administration officials,
most notably his original five Black cabinet members; starting with the late
Ron Brown, the former Democratic Party Chairman who is credited with orchestrating
Clinton into the White House and eventually became the Commerce Secretary.
Former NY city police chief Lee Brown (no relation) headed the office of National
Drug Control Policy. Jocelyn Elders was appointed the Surgeon General. Hazel
O'Leary was the Energy Secretary, and Mike Espy was appointed to lead the Department
of Agriculture. Clinton was the first to have such a cabinet, according to
Blumenthal; an assistant and senior advisor to the embattled former Commander
and Chief. Clinton was more hard-line about inclusion in private while away
from the reporters, cameras and press, than he was in public.
I have written numerous times during that period and beyond how
these appointments were met with deep resentment from the conservative wing,
this was best illustrated by the endless probes, inquiry, scrutiny, and investigations
that they were subjected to that reached even beyond the cabinet to other Black
high ranking officials such as Cliff Warton. Conservatives skillfully deflected
and channeled this outrage or mock outrage to Clinton's infidelity, this backlash
was largely absent during his adulterous years as Governor of Arkansas. Republican
conservatives used every avenue they had to bash Clinton and sway as much of
the public against him as they could.
Clinton's attempts to relate to the Black man, the common man,
was no mere show, "Clinton Wars" shows him breaching the walls of segregation
even at a very young age. His mother was quoted: "I'll never forget he asked
me the question one day, and he was so little, 7, 8, 9, something like that.
He said "can anybody tell me why the color of a man's skin makes so much difference?"
From the time he became Governor he was appointing Blacks to high office in
his administration. Blumenthal does not come off to me as a partisan hero-worshipping
Clintonian, he is quick to point out Clinton's mistakes as well. He made much
space for what should have been an appointment of a Black to assistant attorney
general for civil rights; Lani Guinier, instead only to vilify Clinton for
caving in due to pressure from the right and left.
Guinier was seen as ultra-liberal, but it wasn't like Clinton
didn't already know they didn't want her, the right had her in their cross
hairs for months prior to this: Clinton himself, in a squeamish meeting with
her, had to tell her he was withdrawing her name, and her fury turned on him
personally his withdrawal of support under pressure made him seem like a president
who could be rolled. It would have been better politically had he stood by
her, regardless of the outcome, to send a signal of his firmness. This was
the perfect time for the author to go into detail about the Black Cabinet members
purge, and the major Press' attempt to imply there were no Black's in key White
House positions during the latter part of his 2nd term, but Clinton's trial
alone was enough to fill a book. The real "Clinton Wars" was in part a continued
secret
Shadow War against Black politicians that began years beforehand.
It was never really about Lewinsky or Whitewater, it was re-routed towards
a man in the most coveted position paying a high price for diversity.