Poor Todd Rokita. The Indiana secretary of state is engaged in a probably futile attempt to extricate himself from his Imus moment:
Secretary of State Todd Rokita went on an Indianapolis radio talk show today to try to put to rest a controversy he created last week when he compared black voting support for Democrats to a master-slave relationship.
Rokita, a Republican in his second term as secretary of state, made the comment while speaking to an all-white audience at a Republican dinner in Daviess County last week. Some blacks, including in the state legislature, have expressed outrage at Rokita's comments. And several callers to the "Afternoons with Amos" show hosted by Amos Brown on WTLC-AM told Rokita that while they accepted his apology for what he called a sloppy choice of words, they also felt a public official needs to always be cognizant that words can hurt.
Rokita's slavery metaphor may have been thoughtless and inappropriate, but his frustation, and that of the Republican Party, is understandable. Why do 90 percent of blacks vote Democratic, and why does the GOP have such a hard time making inroads? It's not unlike the Democrats' apparently equally clueless frustration over evangelicals:
Then, a week later, the DNC celebrated Easter with another statement from Dean, including his definition of the holiday. "Easter Sunday is a joyful celebration. The holiday represents peace, redemption and renewal, a theme which brings hope to people of all faiths."Dean's Easter statement seems to bend over backwards not to mention Jesus and demonstrates either a misunderstanding of the evangelical community or a fear of alienating other voting blocs with religious talk.
Blacks and evangelicals have at least one thing in common. The people within the groups are individuals pursuing specific dreams and living specific lives, and they resent being grouped together with many others based on a single characteristic and "figured out" by other people with agendas. Whatever scorn you wish to heap on Todd Rokita, give an equal measure to Howard Dean, and consider your own preconceptions.
