No boom today, boom tomorrow

It's the word choice that fascinates.

On September 13, two days after America observes the one-year anniversary of the worst day in its history, the Rev. Jesse Jackson and his mob will take to the streets of Washington to protest against President George W. Bush. Such timing is bound to make an impression on the American people, but probably not the one Jackson hopes for.

Rev. Jackson and the mob are not part of the American people, apparently.

[. . .] This does not mean the president has snubbed black people; much to the contrary, he's consistently met with African-American pastors and business leaders, the kind of men and women whose names don't turn up on journalists' Rolodexes, and who don't have a professional axe to grind. Aside from post-9/11 patriotism, this may have something to do with the fact that 54 percent of nonwhites in a recent Gallup poll approve of the job Bush is doing.

The glass is slightly more than half-full, then. Another way of looking at this is, 46 percent of mud people nonwhites think Bush is an idiot. And do I have to mention his miserable showing in the election among black people again?

No, Jackson's ire means that [Bush] has frozen out the old-line civil-rights establishment: men like Jackson, NAACP president Kweisi Mfume and NAACP chairman Julian Bond. Bush has wisely taken the advice of black conservative activist Bob Woodson, who said prior to Bush's taking office, "It would be a mistake for Republicans, a mistake they've made in the past, to assume that they've always go through the civil-rights door to get to the black community. And standing at that door are the gatekeepers: Jesse Jackson, Kweisi Mfume, Al Sharpton. What Bush has got to do next is not be trapped by these gatekeepers."

Despite his public ranting, Jackson has from time to time attempted to use back channels to secure a meeting with Bush, to no avail. Jackson, whose financial empire is reportedly on the ropes, knows his livelihood depends on being perceived as a power broker, is desperate. You can't be a power broker if those in power won't give you the time of day. Bush is allowing Jackson's rabblerousing career to die on the vine. It's a mercy killing.

Jackson, friend of Fidel Castro and Yasser Arafat, has done himself no favors in the aftermath of September 11 by positioning himself increasingly on the loony-left, anti-patriotic fringe. This week, he criticized the Democratic-party leadership for not doing enough to back Rep. Cynthia McKinney, the wack-job black Democrat from Georgia who faces a tough primary battle. McKinney, on whose behalf anti-Semitic tyro Louis Farrakhan will be campaigning over the weekend, has taken campaign contributions from Arab extremists, and has accused the Bush administration of orchestrating the 9/11 massacres to serve its own political interests.

From Rod Dreher on Jesse Jackson on National Review Online. Emphasis added here and there.

It ain't that there aren't valid criticisms you can make of Jesse Jackson and the rest. I'm not running out to join the Nation of Domination, if I lived in McKinney's district I'd definitely at least check out the competition rather than blindly voting for her, and I gots no clue what's going through Al Sharpton's mind, thinking a presidential run is a good idea. The only saving grace is that he's not planning to do so as an independent; at least in the debates he might bring up some issues that would normally be ignored.

Given all that, though, reading the NRO piece does little to convince me that the Republicans would welcome me with open arms. They'd gladly take my vote, though. And if I'm willing to loudly denounce other black people, so much the better. Gives them cover for their own attacks.

Charming.