Donna Brazile

I recall getting a somewhat annoyed with Donna Brazile during the 2000 election, when she said that Al Gore and Joe Lieberman were “not going to let those white boys win…”

I mean…it just was such a terrible, race-baiting remark.

But beside that, beyond her occasionally annoying remarks, I always liked Brazile, herself. She was capable of intellectual honesty and even would venture to criticise her own party from time-to-time which is a healthy sign for anyone. Beyond that, she always seemed very “warm” to me – like someone you’d enjoy having over for some informal supper followed by a game of scrabble.

Her heartfelt words in this Cindy Adams column just make me like her that much more.

It occurs to me that there are only a few really genuine (meaning coming-up-from-the-real-world-instead-of-the-privileged-one) folks currently prominent in America Politics – really, only a few: Condoleeza Rice, Clarence Thomas, Rudy Guiliani and Donna Brazile. And of those four, only two of them, Thomas and Brazile, knew real poverty in their lives. Guiliani and Rice grew up middle class.

Can you think of many others? I can’t. Perhaps Barack Obama – product of an interracial marriage, he was raised by his single mother but if I recall, they were not poor and he was always something of a “star.” If you’ve been raised as a “star,” then things tend to be made easier for you, so perhaps he does not count. He did not have a hardscrabble background is what I mean.

Who else came up from normal, middle-class background, without ivy-halls and money/power connections helping them along the way? Can we think of any? Help me out, folks! :-)

Meanwhile, if I were President Bush I would be giving Donna Brazile a great big kiss. What she said was bold and brave. It took enormous guts and a lot of good-will.

And if I were Donna Brazile I’d be wondering how her own party was planning to destroy her if she does not quickly get back in line.