The CBC Could Do A LOT Better Than Marcia Fudge-- And Should

Proving that she can’t read through an amendment that consists of one single sentence, Congressional Black Caucus chair, Marcia Fudge, declared at the annual CBC Legislative Conference last week that she and her lamer members had voted with the House leadership and the money-grubbing shills of the Military Industrial Complex against Grayson’s amendment to curtail the militarization of the local police “because it was a dumb amendment.” No wonder Bruce Dixon’s cutting Edge Black Agenda Report is so down on the inherent conservativism and corruptionism of the CBC!

It wasn’t a dumb amendment; she’s a dumb congresswoman— and a pawn for shady Big Money interests. No doubt she was offended at Grayson’s politically incorrect, plain-spoken tweet after the vote that “pigs feeding at the military-industrial trough killed" this amendment, a view that is widely accepted Inside-the-Beltway, albeit only in whispers.

Senior CBC members, John Conyers (D-MI), Bobby Scott (D-VA) and Hank Johnson (D-GA), who were among the 8 CBC members who broke with Fudge and the Military Industrial Complex bribe-takers to support the amendment are demanding Congress take up the issue again— an issue cowards like Fudge are now too frightened to oppose. The other CBC members who voted with Grayson and stood up for their constituents instead of their crooked donors were Keith Ellison (D-MN), Donna Edwards (D-MD), Barbara Lee (D-CA), John Lewis (D-GA), and Maxine Waters (D-CA).

The amendment Fudge couldn’t understand and called “dumb” instead: “An amendment to prohibit use of funds to transfer aircraft (including unmanned aerial vehicles), armored vehicles, grenade launchers, silencers, toxicological agents, launch vehicles, guided missiles, ballistic missiles, rockets, torpedoes, bombs, mines, or nuclear weapons through the DOD Excess Personal Property Program established pursuant to the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1997.”

Fudge, who has a decent progressive voting record, is, basically, a hack Democratic politician devoid of leadership talent. She was working for Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones when Jones suddenly died from a cerebral aneurysm in 2008 and was selected after calling all the members of the district’s Democratic Executive Committee. In a horrifyingly gerrymandered D+30 district (designed specifically to concentrate as many African-American voters as possible into one electoral ghetto in order to make OH-14 and OH-16 safe for racist white Republicans, respectively David Joyce and Jim Renacci), the Democratic Party nomination is tantamount to election. The district has a 54.2% African-American population and Obama won it with 82% against McCain and 83% against Romney. Fudge had no opponent in the special election and won “reelection” in the next general with 85%. Republicans didn’t bother to put up a candidate against her in 2012. This year the GOP candidate is Mark Zetzer, a graphic artist, who, as of June 30, had raised less than the $5,000 that would trigger an FEC fundraising report. Fudge has raised $670,846, a full 80% of it from PACs.

Aside from calling Grayson’s amendment dumb, she also implied African-American voters are dumb: “The black caucus fights for you every day. Even when you won’t fight for yourself. We fight for you. Whether it’s immigration or education, whether it’s food stamps, whether it’s housing, we fight for you every day. So my message to you is to contain your complaining. Contain your complaining.” Grayson’s amendment to prohibit the militarization of the police is what fighting for her constituents means, not her vote with the Republicans and the other corrupt Democrats against it. That’s exactly why the most admired African American legislators— from Barbara Lee and John Conyers to John Lewis and Keith Ellison— backed it. Fudge is a disgrace and she should step aside as CBC chair and let someone who would have fought to prevent tragedies like Ferguson happen take up the chair going forward. Oh, yeah, if she isn’t just plain dumb… she’s a liar and misrepresented the amendment she says she’s glad she opposed. She claims the CBC opposed the amendment (see video above), even though the 8 most prominent members of the CBC all voted for it.

Fudge, not fighting for Cleveland residents