November 30, 2004
Next Get Bond... Julian Bond
The media at large and CBS News in particular took hard hits as a result of the last election cycle, and it appears they are not alone. In addition to propagandist Michael Moore being shelled as the least inspiring, least-intriguing celebrity in Hollywood, it now appears the axe is falling on at least one head at the incredibly ineffective NAACP, as President Kweisi Mfume plans to step down.
Neither the NAACP nor Mfume would say why he was stepping down, but I'll go out on a limb and say he has to for allowing the organization's credibility to be damaged severely, to the point where many feel it is no longer a civil rights organization, but instead a mouthpiece of the Democratic Party.
Mfume allowed NAACP Chairman Julian Bond to threaten the organization's tax-exempt status by making overtly partisan statements at the organization's annual Convention in July. Bond said:
"They preach racial neutrality and practice racial division," Bond said Sunday night in the 95th annual convention's keynote address. "They've tried to patch the leaky economy and every other domestic problem with duct tape and plastic sheets. They write a new constitution of Iraq and they ignore the Constitution here at home."In light of these statements, and earlier comments where Bond compared Republicans to terrorists, it is clear (at least to me) that Mfume is not the only officer of the NAACP that should step down. Bond has destroyed any remaining shreds of credibility the organization has, and it would be a shame if the one-time powerful civil rights group should be forced to consider reorganizing as a 527 or other non-tax-exempt group thanks to their poor and partisan leadership.
Julian Bond, is is time for you to go.
