Obama Citizenship Concerns Put to Rest
Once again, the anti-Obama forces have been thwarted in their efforts to prove that America’s first Black president lacks the U.S. citizenship required to hold the nation’s highest office. “I … have seen the original vital records maintained on file by the Hawaii State Department of Health verifying Barack Hussein Obama was born in Hawaii and is a natural-born American citizen,” Hawaiian Health Director Dr. Chiyome Fukino said in a brief statement. “I have nothing further to add to this statement or my original statement issued in October 2008 over eight months ago.” Fukino said that she hopes her latest comments will quash the linger concerns raised by so-called “birthers,” who have proffered the notion that Obama is not a natural-born American citizen and, thus, does not meet the constitutional requirement to be president. Such rumors first surfaced when it became apparent that he could win the Democratic nomination. Prominent conservative commentators, including shock jock Rush Limbaugh and immigrant-basher Lou Dobbs of CNN, have been among those raising questions over Obama’s citizenship. In recent weeks, the rumblings have grown more vociferous, resurfacing on blogs and throughout the Internet. Critics argue that Obama’s birth certificate is a fake, saying he was really born in Kenya, his father’s homeland, and some have even challenged his citizenship in court. “They just keep asking over and over and over again,” Health Department spokeswoman Janice Okubo said. Ten Republican members of Congress co-sponsored a bill that would require future presidential candidates to provide a copy of their original birth certificate. But on Monday, the U.S. House unanimously approved a resolution recognizing and celebrating the 50th anniversary of Hawaii becoming the 50th state. A clause was included that reads: “Whereas the 44th President of the United States, Barack Obama , was born in Hawaii on August 4, 1961.”

Rush Limbaugh took an intermission from bashing former Secretary of State Colin Powell Tuesday to focus his energies on President Obama’s nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court. Sonia Sotomayor is both a “racist” and a “hack,” the conservative radio commentator bloviated during his popular broadcast. Read the rest.

Limbaugh Shifts Rage Toward Court Nominee
Rush Limbaugh took an intermission from bashing former Secretary of State Colin Powell Tuesday to focus his energies on President Obama’s nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court. Sonia Sotomayor is both a “racist” and a “hack,” the conservative radio commentator bloviated during his popular broadcast. “Here you have a racist – you might want to soften that, and you might want to say a reverse racist,” Limbaugh said, referring to the nominee’s 2001 comment during a Berkeley, Calif., speech that a “wise Latina woman with the richness of her experience would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a White male who hasn’t lived that life.” He also challenged the notion that “minorities cannot be racist because they don’t have the power to implement their racism,” saying, “Well, those days are gone because reverse racists certainly do have the power to implement their power. Obama is the greatest living example of a reverse racist, and now he’s appointed one. …She’s not the brain that they’re portraying her to be. She’s not a constitutional jurist.” In recent weeks, Limbaugh has said that Powell – the first African American to hold the positions of chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, National Security Advisor and secretary of State – is not a true Republican but a liberal Democrat in a GOP disguise. Powell has urged fellow Republicans to reject Limbaugh’s rhetoric as incendiary and damaging to the party.

First Black New England Mayor Dies
Leo Jackson the first Black mayor of a New England city, has died. He was 83. Jackson shocked the nation three decades ago when he his fellow city councilors in New London, Conn., selected him to lead the city. One of those giving him a shout out was then-President Jimmy Carter, whom Jackson supported in Carter’s 1980 primary battle with fellow New Englander, Massachusetts Sen. Edward Kennedy. Although Jackson was only mayor for one, one-year term, he would remain on the New London City Council for the next 13 years. Jackson died at his home in New London on Sunday night.

Powell Warns His Party … Again
Call him a “liberal” all you want, but former Secretary of State Colin Powell says that unless the Republican Party embraces his vision for a more inclusive party – and not that of his ultra-conservative counterparts, Rush Limbaugh and Dick Cheney – the GOP is in trouble. Powell, along with former Pennsylvania governor and Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge, made their rounds on the Sunday TV talk shows hoping to throw a lifeline to their floundering party. “I believe we should build on the base because the nation needs two parties, two parties debating each other,” said Powell, who became the first African-American to head the State Department, during the administration of George W. Bush. “But what we have to do is debate and define who we are and what we are and not just listen to dictates that come down from the right wing of the party. …If we don’t reach out more, the party is going to be sitting on a very, very narrow base. You can only do two things with a base. You can sit on it and watch the world go by, or you can build on the base,” Powell said. Ridge, who was also appointed by Bush, agreed. He said if the Republican Party wants “to restore itself, not as a regional party, but as a national party, we have to be far less judgmental about disagreements within the party and far more judgmental about our disagreement with our friends on the other side of the aisle.” That so many Republicans are openly criticizing the direction of their party has signaled serious trouble at the homestead. Recent polls have shown that the party is not as popular as it used to be. Moreover, surveys are reflecting another unthinkable: that many Republicans are actually digging President Obama. Even when they don’t totally agree with a specific idea, they see him as intelligent, thoughtful, honest and quite presidential. This is not good news for hard-line conservatives like Limbaugh and Co. This isn’t the first time Powell has put Limbaugh on blast; several days ago, he described his partymate to a group of business leaders as a mere entertainer, a personality – not somebody who should be leading the GOP. “I may be out of their version of the Republican Party, but there’s another version of the Republican Party waiting to emerge once again,” he said. Limbaugh fired back, citing Powell’s endorsement of Barack Obama over John McCain in the last general election as proof that Powell puts race above loyalty to the party. Powell is a Democrat in disguise, he said. Cheney was quick to jump into the debate, saying he’d rather follow the radio shock jock than Powell. On Sunday, Republican hitman Karl Rove co-signed on Cheney and Limbaugh’s anti-Powell vibe. “I don’t like this thing where people – and Powell is one them – who said, ‘Rush Limbaugh, shut up.’ We believe, as Republicans in the marketplace of ideas. Let that marketplace decide,” Rove said. “I want Colin Powell to go out there and lay out his vision, and then I want him to back it up by finding people who share it and working like heck to get them – and that’s how you win the party.” But offering further proof that there’s a shakeup going on in the Republican Party, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, known for commanding a successful conservative assault against the Clinton administration, is vociferously siding with the moderates. “I think Republicans are going to be very foolish if they run around deciding they’re going to see how much they can purge us down to the smallest possible base.” He says he wasn’t aiming to pick a fight with Cheney, only stating what his fellow Republicans need to hear.

Atlanta Mayor’s Disser is Suspended
There’s a price to pay for dissing the mayor, or any other person in Atlanta, according to Police Chief Richard Pennington, who on Saturday suspended the head of the police union. Last week, during a public discussion about seriously injured officers getting short shrift from the city workers’ compensation program, Sgt. Scott Kreher said he wanted to hit Mayor Shirley Franklin “in the head with a bat.” “The Atlanta Police Department does not condone nor will we tolerate supervisors making irresponsible and inflammatory remarks against the Mayor or any citizen of the City of Atlanta,” Pennington said in a statement released late Saturday night. Kreher is president of the International Brotherhood of Police Officers — Local 623. city council members that he wanted to hit the mayor “in the head with a baseball bat.” In a statement, the mayor called Kreher’s comment “reprehensible,” and said she felt threatened.

Steele Accused of Hiring Friends
Republican Party Chairman Michael Steele, who rules over a divided GOP, is being accused by a leading conservative newspaper of stacking his staff with friends and family and guaranteeing them salaries far greater than that of their predecessors. The Washington Times reported this week that when Steele agreed to become chairman, he brought along his longtime personal assistant, Belinda Cook, and paid her almost three times what the previous chairman’s assistant had earned. Then, according to the Times, Cook’s son landed a gig at the Republican National Committee. Steele then hired another family friend, Angela Sailor, to be the party’s outreach director, paying her a salary of $180,000, “more than double her predecessor’s compensation, though new responsibilities have been added to the job,” according to the Times. The newspaper, which is owned by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon of the Unification Church, is known for its conservative stances on political and social issues. Moon once said that “The Washington Times will become the instrument in spreading the truth about God to the world.”  FOX News, another conservative media outlet, also broadcast a report about Steele’s hiring practices. In that story, FOX interviewed Hawaii’s Republican chief, Willis Lee. “These salaries we hear about are way out of line for what staff should be paid for working for a political party, which most of us think of as a cause,” said Hawaii Republican Party Chairman Willis Lee. “And if certain staff at the national committee are making that much, then the public understandably might think they are examples of cronyism.” The Republican Party, which has had a longtime reputation of dissing Black voters, hasn’t quite figured out how to size up its new leader, the first African American to hold the post. Some party members were strongly against his appointment, arguing that he was not a true conservative. The former lieutenant governor of Maryland has expressed support for a women’s right to choose an abortion and bucked the longstanding party line by suggesting that gay people do not choose to be homosexual. He has since recanted those comments. In recent months, he has endured barbs from conservative radio commentator Rush Limbaugh, who casts himself as a true conservative and Steele as the wrong person to lead the Republican Party.

Former Vice President Dick Cheney, who’s been making news lately by blasting the Black leadership of the Republican Party, kept the heated barbs flying Sunday, implying to a national TV audience that the former Secretary of State Colin Powell is a traitor to the GOP. Referring to a recent verbal battle between Powell and radio air-raider Rush Limbaugh, Cheney told CBS’s Face the Nation that, “If I had to choose in terms of being a Republican, I’d go with Rush Limbaugh. My take on it was Colin had already left the party. I didn’t know he was still a Republican.” Read more.

Rush Limbaugh has a problem with leading Black Republicans. In recent weeks, he’s blasted his own party’s chairman, calling Michael Steele “gutless” and too weak to challenge President Obama. And now, the acid-tongued shock jock is hurling barbs at perhaps the most respected Black Republican in America, telling his estimated 20 million listeners to his radio show that former Secretary of State Colin Powell is really a Democrat in a GOP costume. Read what else he said.

Michael Steele said that he’s “done” reaching out to Barack Obama, adding that the nation’s first Black president seems to have a problem with him in his role as the first Black head of the Republican Party. Speaking to CNN over the weekend, Steele said that Obama “has got a little thing about me that I haven’t quite figured out.” Read more.

In sharp contrast to other leading Republicans, former President George W. Bush said that he would love for President Obama to succeed and that all politicians, regardless of party affiliation, have a responsibility to lend him a hand. “I love my country a lot more than I love politics,” Bush said. “I think it is essential that he be helped in office.” Not only did Bush refuse to criticize Obama’s presidential decisions so far, but he said that the new commander in chief “deserves my silence.” Read more.

By Ed Wiley III
 
Surely, Michael Steele had a completely different expectation of what it would be like to break through the ultimate glass ceiling and become the HBIC – the Head Brother in Charge – of the GOP. After all, he likely pondered, the Democrats had gotten an HBIC of their own, and they lifted him up as the second coming of Abraham Lincoln. But when Obama ascended to his party’s throne, there wasn’t a 300-pound shock jock with a boat load of money and a following of 20 million listeners already heating the cushion. So the challenge for Steele has been to figure out a way to wrest the reins of power from that shock jock, Rush Limbaugh, who is proving much more formidable than Steele ever could have imagined. Click for the full story.