Mosely Braun on Democracy Now

[eablair3]

Amy Goodman seemed to really be going after Carol Mosely-Braun this morning on Democracy Now. Goodman stayed after her.

What was this all about? Anyone have the nutshell version?

[messiah]

1. The stream is up from todays show

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/01/06/1548237

They were arguing over something about her support of a Nigerian dictator.

[eablair3]

2. yes, will have to perhaps listen again

I don't recall too many times where Amy Godman stayed after someone like that.

[BurtWorm]

7. It was painful to listen to!

I didn't get to hear the follow-up from Saro-Wiwa's brother and the other guy. I was curious about their take on what Mosely-Braun said.

After a while, I was feeling bad for her because it's difficult to witness someone being cornered. I can understand her anger over the situation, setting aside that she seems to have shown Abacha's family more courtesy than Saro-Wiwa's. I can appreciate CMB's point that too often people unfairly oversimplify--I did a little of that today in a thread on John Edwards and Bill O'Reilly--torturing the symbolism out of a single act or sentence until it stands for that person's BAD CHARACTER, while glossing over all mitigating circumstances or counterexamples. I can understand why she might view it as a right-wing smear, exasperated by useful leftist idiots, to destroy the career of an uppity black woman, only the second African-American in the Senate.

She was remarkably self-controlled in making that argument, despite being clearly riled up about it. I can understand an argument like this: white politicians get close to oil companies and corrupt regimes all the time; why are African-Americans held to a higher standard? I can understand the argument (though not totally buying it), even while understanding why it must infuriate the shit out of her, considering she lost her office over it. (Have any white politicians ever lost office for cozying up to Big Oil and corrupt dictators?)

Incidentally, Goodman went off on that tangent because CMB had just blasted Rumsfeld for cynically cuddling up to Saddam Hussein in the 1980s. Goodman, rather impolitely, turned it around to ask about the Saro-Wiwa/Abacha controversy. It's almost as though she can't stop herself, that naughty, naughty Amy Goodman! I heard her mix it up with Bill Clinton just before Election 2000 in a similarly annoying-as-a-gadfly way.

[11cents]

3. M-B came off very badly

Blaming the whole controversy on Karl Rove, fergawdsake. The Nigerian matter was part of the reason she lost in '98; is she saying that Karl Rove was engineering it all then?

But I couldn't see why Goodman thought it worthwhile to dredge it all up now, except that it gave her a chance to suggest that Democrats are no better than Republicans. It's not as if Carol Mosely-Braun is a serious contender.

[messiah]

4. She was as hard on Nader

Just a few weeks as she was on Carol-Mosely-Braun. She is just a good journalist.

[11cents]

5. That's interesting; missed the Nader interview

Going after Mosely-Braun at this late date just didn't strike me as a worthwhile allocation of time, though. I don't say that as a fan of M-B -- as a woman-type person, I find her kind of embarrassing as a candidate, with her constant "let me talk about my family, as women do" thing.

[WhoCountsTheVotes]

6. She ripped Clinton a new one in 2000

She's tough, that's all, and she's fair. She won't give Dems a break any more than she will Greens or Republicans.