No-shows condemned at NAACP
By Jill Lawrence, USA TODAY
MIAMI BEACH — Four empty chairs and blazing rhetoric at an NAACP presidential candidates forum Monday laid bare the civil rights group's anger at being spurned by President Bush and three Democrats. Those four now have no right to ask for black votes in the 2004 election, NAACP President Kweisi Mfume said.
NAACP President Kweisi Mfume criticized three Democratic presidential candidates for skipping the group's presidential forum. By Wilfredo Lee, AP
"We are interested in people who are interested in us," Mfume said from Miami. He said the four candidates' failure to attend was an affront to African-American voters and to the 94-year-old National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
"This organization has dignity," he said. "We are not going to allow anybody, Democrat or Republican, to take it for granted."
The empty chairs onstage with six Democratic candidates were labeled for Bush, Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman, Missouri Rep. Richard Gephardt and Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich. Mfume cut them no slack despite their records. Bush is the first sitting Republican president to go to Africa, and all three absent Democrats received 100% scores for their votes in the last Congress from the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights.
When Mfume named each of the no-shows in a morning speech, an organist played a dramatic death-knell chord. "You have now become persona non grata," he admonished the four in absentia. "Your political capital is the equivalent of Confederate dollars."
Aides to candidates who were at the forum used such words as "brutal" and "scorching" to describe the effect of the rhetoric and the empty chairs. But some said Democrats should focus their fire on Bush rather than on each other.
The level of vitriol at the NAACP surprised some camps. "Congressman Kucinich has spoken to NAACP events, and he has been warmly received," Kucinich spokesman Jeff Cohen said. "He believes NAACP members are exactly the people he's campaigning for."
Kucinich said he stayed in Washington in case important votes came up Monday evening. Lieberman was in New York for private meetings and to tape Bill O'Reilly's show for Fox News Channel.
"We can't accept every invitation that is extended," Lieberman spokesman Jano Cabrera said. He said Lieberman worked in the 1960s civil rights movement and marched with Martin Luther King. "No one should question Sen. Lieberman's commitment to civil rights, racial equality and equal opportunity."
Gephardt said he had a family obligation. Spokesman Erik Smith did not release details but said "no offense was intended" by Gephardt's decision to honor that commitment. He called Gephardt's record "exemplary" on issues that matter to African-Americans.
Democratic strategists say each candidate has received hundreds of invitations to forums and debates, far more than in previous years, because the campaign began early and because so many primaries are in the first six weeks of next year. The events are sponsored by groups representing core Democratic voters, including labor unions, women, minorities, environmentalists and senior citizens.
Smith said Gephardt received hundreds of annoyed e-mails after he did not attend a League of Conservation Voters forum in Los Angeles. "There is a great deal of pressure, and it is understandable," Smith said, referring to key Democratic constituencies.
North Carolina Sen. John Edwards had planned to visit the NAACP convention the day after the presidential forum, in keeping with his pattern of trying to appear on his own rather than onstage with all his rivals. But the NAACP insisted no other time would work, so Edwards went to the forum.
"We couldn't pass up this audience. It's too important," Edwards spokeswoman Jennifer Palmieri said. "If you plan to be competitive in the Southern early primary states, it is arguably the most important group." She cited Virginia, Tennessee and South Carolina, where big chunks of Democratic primary voters are black.
Also attending Monday's forum: former Vermont governor Howard Dean; Sens. Bob Graham of Florida and John Kerry of Massachusetts; former senator Carol Moseley Braun of Illinois; and civil rights activist Al Sharpton of New York.
For the most part, candidates can choose which forums to attend and avoid recriminations.
But Mfume made clear that would not be the case this time. He said candidates, including Bush, were invited four months ago and had plenty of time to schedule an appearance. He also said the NAACP moved the event from Wednesday to Monday and changed it from a debate to a panel to accommodate the candidates.
"We don't mean to be arrogant, and we certainly are not trying to be mean-spirited," Mfume said. But he said candidates who can't find time to share their thoughts on leadership at the annual NAACP convention "really have no legitimacy going into our communities later and then asking for and expecting our votes. Those days are long since gone."
In 2000, Bush tried to appeal to black voters and even spoke at the NAACP convention. But nine in 10 black voters chose the Democratic ticket of Al Gore and Lieberman. Bush has not attended the convention since becoming president. Lieberman has been doing well among black voters in national polls, partly because he is well-known from the 2000 race.
The NAACP spent $10.5 million in 2000 on its first voter registration and education campaign. The group registered 2 million voters then and is aiming to add another 2 million by November 2004.
It's not clear how much influence the NAACP will have in discouraging support for the no-shows.
Mfume says African-American voters will treat the absences as "a barometer" of commitment to them. "People are sick and tired of having others expect that we will act a certain way or vote a certain way," he said. "This is a special affront to the larger black community when for whatever reason the need to be here is not a priority."
Contributing: Contributing: Contributing: Associated Press
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