On specific Black Republicans.
In the end, Colin Powell's public career will survive this debacle. I'm not sure about Condoleeza Rice, but I lean toward expecting her to fade out of the limelight entirely when the Bushista are forced to bail.
General Powell will be able to do the good soldier thing. Black folks will remember he spoke in favor of the idea of affirmative action programs. They'll remember he was The Good Soldier that had to get pulled in line periodically; he followed marching orders precisely but tended to wander out of line when left on his own. Clarke's defense against charges of disloyalty to Bush will be used in Powell's defense against charges of disloyalty to Black folks (charges that are already being made in some circles):
- It's not a lie, it's politics
- When you work for the president and he orders you to emphasize the positive, you do it
Dr. Rice, on the other hand, was practically forced to admit the campus she was provost of had affirmative action programs, and that (though she felt there were "better" ways of attaining diversity than attending to the very things that define diversity) if there were no other way after trying every other way she might consider a tailored, tightly focused experimental program that took race into account as one of many factors. Her relentless, unflagging loyalty to the Bushista regime and the letter of the Republican platform has convinced people her concern for Black folks is about on a par with other loyal Republicans'. And a LOT of people…self primary among them…were offended by her equating the Iraq invasion with the civil rights movement. That was the gesture by which she put herself in the "tool used to manipulate Black folks" box and nailed down the lid.
Said box is the coffin in which her public career will be buried, because if she can't gin up the Black vote for them (not that anyone can), no future administration will have any use for her. These statements by Richard Clarke are just the handles by which the pallbearers will carry her out.
