[see more on the Congressional Black Caucus at crewof42.com]
I’m trying not to notice that, when it comes to White House visits, Reps. Elijah Cummings, Barbara Lee and Andre Carson are summoned for a Super Bowl party and a concert. Yes, Marcia Fudge was at the childhood obesity event yesterday with Congressional Black Caucus Chair Lee. But are these visits about substantive policy?
President Obama met last week with Urban League President Marc Morial, Al Sharpton, NAACP President Ben Jealous, and Council of Negro Women Chair Dorothy Height on jobs. Don’t get me wrong, all of those leaders are perfectly fine but...
...The President was meeting with the wrong people. Morial, Jealous, Height and Sharpton don’t have to get legislation through Congress. They don’t have to do the work that moves a political agenda forward and make it a reality. They don’t have to sit in committee meetings, they don’t have to get bills report out, they don’t have to roundup votes and co-sponsors and put legislation in the hopper. These actions may be as exciting and press ready as rallying for a day of outrage over violence or holding a national convention but these things are the real deal. They represent the chance to change policy and law. Meeting with Morial, Jealous, Height and Sharpton is done for show. Now the White House can say they met with "black leaders" and, "heard their concerns regarding jobs." Fine. But the inescapable bottom line is unless the gathering leads to something actionable and quantifiable I’m not sure what the point is. When the sun sets it comes down to policy and more specifically: Legislation.
Why not talk with the people who actually have to get that work done? Although Morial, Jealous, Height and Sharpton have a key agenda setting role President Obama should be meeting with the tip of the legislative sword. President Obama would be better off meeting with John Boehner and Mitch McConnell for a second day in a row and attempting to convince them to ease up so he can get something done than meeting with Morial, Jealous, Height and Sharpton. Futile though that effort may be, it is time better spent.
President Obama should meet with some of his old congressional colleagues. How about Reps. Charlie Rangel, John Conyers, Maxine Waters, Bobby Scott and Jim Clyburn for starters? Go ahead, Mr. President, meet with people who aren’t necessarily going to sit there and tell you what you want to hear. I suspect Conyers and Waters could provide. Clyburn could tell you how to get the votes to pass something in the House, Conyers could tell you to stop kissing Wall Street’s behind and rail about the 15% employment rate in Michigan, Waters could tell you about creating a link between corporations and jobs training, Scott could tell you this country needs to stop spending over $60 billion a year locking people up and would save big with a preventative investment on the front end and Rangel could tell you that the three year spending freeze will end up hurting social programs the type of which you fought for as a community organizer. Uncomfortable listening? Maybe. But the clock is ticking before the numbers change in Congress. As we sit now, a 77 seat advantage in the House and a 18 seat advantage in the Senate is not enough to move the agenda. Wait until January 2011.
This White House spends too little time listening to the people on the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue. These are the people who are hearing the concerns of real Americans across the country every weekend. When Obama does listen, it’s the same five members of the leadership (Pelosi, Reid, Clyburn, Hoyer and Durbin). But sometimes the leadership doesn’t have time or inclination to communicate what is on the minds of the rank and file. A clear example was the whole jobs vs. health care moment. Had the Obama Administration been talking to rank and file members of Congress for the last three months they would have known the American people wanted a focus on jobs. This reporter knew that before Obama did and that should not be the case. Several members have told me that the White House has a six person liason team between them and the White House. I think it’s pretty obvious the team is unable to get through to whoever they need to get through to get their messages to the President. Bad communication is costing this White House on several fronts.
[More on my blog at Crewof42.com]