EYE don't condone the Bloomberg endorsement but EYE understand the Bloomberg endorsement

By J.D. Crowe | jdcrowe@al.com

So, the white male-dominated Alabama media have their knickers in knots because Joe Reed's ADC endorsed former New York Mayor Micheal Bloomberg for President in the Democratic primary.  The same white male-dominated media who give Senator Doug Jones a pass for voting to confirm William Barr Attorney General of the United States of America and who bucked his party to vote with Republicans 53% of the time his first year in office and 36% of the time his second year in office.  The same Senator we have to wonder if he is going to pander to the right and throw his base under the bus every time there is an important vote.  But EYE digress.

Desperate times call for desperate measures.

With the prodding of Sen. Doug Jones, the national party ordered the Alabama party to change bylaws that ensured Reed’s permanent lock on the executive committee. England’s son, state Rep. Chris England, won a party election for chair, which most ADC members boycotted.
It seemed, for a moment, Reed’s hold on the state party had broken.
Then comes Bloomberg.

Let's recap 

This whole saga started last August, when Jones led a failed coup of the Alabama Democratic Party during its election of officers, including an unsuccessful attempt to unseat Chairwoman Nancy Worley. Worley was the preferred choice of the Alabama Democratic Conference (ADC), which is known as the “black political caucus” of the state party.
Since then, formal challenges about that election were filed with the DNC, which is now attempting to force the state party to hold a new election of officers and drastically change the structure of the State Democratic Executive Committee (SDEC) in a manner which would include less African Americans.

Fast Foward 

The two sides in a dispute over the leadership and governance of the Alabama Democratic Party will go to court-ordered mediation next week.
Representatives of factions loyal to Alabama Democratic Party chair Christopher England and former chair Nancy Worley should meet for mediation in Montgomery on Feb. 6. Meanwhile, Worley, who does not recognize the actions of the England group, has called a meeting of the executive board of the State Democratic Executive Committee (SDEC) on Feb. 7.

 Back to the future

Joe Reed, the chair of the Alabama Democratic Conference and vice-chair for minority affairs in the state party, said he believed the State Democratic Executive Committee's (SDEC) move in November to elect new leadership and remove Worley and vice-chair Randy Kelly violated a 1991 agreement governing the representation of African-Americans on the SDEC.

"I think it's time for us to go into federal court, because they're violating a federal court order," he said.

The past is prologue 

The feud began last August, when Jones made known he wanted Worley to step aside. But Worley ran for another term — beating back the entire slate Jones supported.
“He went after Nancy’s seat. He lost,” said Joe Reed, a civil rights veteran who heads the Alabama Democratic Conference, the state’s principal African American Democratic club, and Worley’s most powerful ally. “Doug’s slate lost. He came back. He got with Perez. They then came up with a scheme to challenge Nancy’s election.”
Two groups of Alabama Democrats did challenge the election results, and Worley’s handling of the meeting, in an official complaint lodged with the DNC. A detailed report found a series of rules and parliamentary violations and raised questions about the accuracy of the vote count.
In February, after that investigation, the DNC’s Rules and Bylaws Committee vacated the August election results and ordered the state Democratic Party to come up with new bylaws meant to increase representation of minority and members of the LGBT community among party leadership.

It's about controlling the black vote

But in Bloomberg, Reed has a special opportunity: A viable candidate who needs his help.
Bloomberg has bypassed the first four states, putting all his effort into Super Tuesday states, of which Alabama is one.

The Alabama Democratic Conference which represents the majority of the membership of the Alabama Democratic Party is under constant and sustained attack from the minority.  evidently, Mike Bloomberg offered a lifeline.

I have spoken to three black NYC political operatives who are quietly thinking about joining the campaign, which is gaining momentum, hiring nationwide, and paying top dollar. These aren’t mercenaries but self-defined pragmatic progressives who believe Bloomberg has the best chance at an electoral victory against Trump in November. I have spoken to a friend who says his black fraternity’s message boards—full of college-educated black men of diverse financial backgrounds, in various professional sectors, living in towns and cities across the country—are full of favorable talk about Bloomberg. As I’m writing this on a trip to Los Angeles, I was surprised to hear my friends here—a diverse group of fortysomething progressives in different professions and from different backgrounds—saying not only that they thought Bloomberg could win but they were inclined to support him."

"A lifeline is not pretty or perfect "

EYE am just saying

The Alabama Democratic Conference celebrating 60 Years of History #BHM2020 #ADC60 #AlabamaBlackHistory

Watch this video and you will see why the status quo hates what Dr. Joe Reed stands for and why they want him to step down and let a new generation take over. 

Watch this video and you will learn the history of the Alabama Democratic Conference and its accomplishments.  

Share this video and tell all our children the story of equal, civil, and human rights in Alabama because #TheStruggleContinues.  

"We Shall Overcome"  One Day

EYE Am Back! Let's Roll!

By Spider Martin

Before EYE type another world let me acknowledge a milestone and thank those of you who read this blog even when EYE am on hiatus.  EYE composed my first post on RedEyes Front Page on January 17, 2010, after being booted from the pages of Left in Alabama on Friday the 13th, 2009.  Since then EYE  have been banned from more blogs, forums, public meetings, organizations, etc. so EYE must be doing something right (pun intended).  EYE have been called a Keyboard Warrior and although it was meant as slam EYE take it as a compliment.  So here we are ten years, 1911 posts, 3921 comments, and 710745 pages view later still plugging along.

I don't have any illusions as to my "influence" or importance in the world, but I love my country, and in my own way I hope to make a difference because I want to make this world we live in a better place for everyone.

Let's Recap:

The Civil War for control of the Alabama Democratic Party Plantation is headed to mediation.  EYE tried to tell them this divisive #DoOver was going to divide and conquer the Alabama Democratic Party forever but did they listen?  Nope.  So much has been said and done, EYE don't see mediation as a solution and maybe it's time for the Alabama Democratic Majority to start our own damn party and force Republicans and Democrats to compete for our votes. 

Ironically one of the alleged complaints about Nancy Worley is that she didn't support Democratic candidates in the last election, but those same malcontents aren't saying a mumbling word about Alabama Senator Doug Jones voting with the Republicans and sending mixed messages about his upcoming impeachment vote.

The challenge for Mr. Jones is whether voters see him as reasonable and unbiased, as he hopes, or as an appeaser of the other side. His appeals risk alienating not only the Trump-supporting Alabamians he has to answer to when he faces re-election in November, but also liberal Democrats — his base — some of whom he says have wanted to remove the president since “the minute he took his hand off the Bible when he was sworn in.”

Um No, Mr. New York Times Columnist Jeremy W. Peters  Doug Jones doesn't have to answer to the Trump-supporting Alabamians.  As a matter of fact, listening to advice like this is why his re-election is in jeopardy.

History to the contrary, too many white Democrats refuse to learn that Blacks can win elections. Less than a week after Black voters were hailed for having “saved America” through a record turnout in Alabama to defeat Roy Moore’s bid for the U.S. Senate in December, pundits were advising the Democratic Party that it should reward its Black supporters by shoving them to the back of the political bus yet again. Bill Scher’s Dec. 20 article in POLITICO was typical of this bad advice. He suggested that in 2018, Democrats should run candidates like Doug Jones, who won a narrow victory over Roy Moore but polled lower than Moore among white voters.

And how are Alabama's African American voters being rewarded?  By being thrown to the back of the bus.

Worley and attorney Benjamin Maxymuk appeared before the Credentials Committee today. Worley argued, in part, that the election last year was challenged only because she won. She characterized the DNC’s demands on the state party to change its bylaws as an effort to take from black party members the ability to elect blacks to the State Democratic Executive Committee.

“So just get your boots on because you’re going to need a whole lot of water sprayed on you,” Worley said. “Not from those water hoses that we saw in Alabama back in the 60s. But it’s because you’re going to be burning in hell for taking away people’s voting rights.”

This is what punishing the base to spite your face in Sweet Home Alabama looks like. 

“We not go let folk kick us around and dog us around and keep putting them back in office,” he charged from the podium. “We are not going to do that.”
Reed didn’t mention folk’s name. Didn’t have to.

And that's unfortunate since Alabama is key to Democrats gaining control of the Senate.  

But here is the Political Play of the Decade: For Democrats to have any realistic hopes of taking control of the U.S. Senate from Republicans they need to hold on to Jones seat. So control of the U.S. Senate is in the control of Alabama's Black block vote and we are damned if we vote for Doug Jones and damned if we don't.

Ain't that a dip?

This is what #PunishingTheBaseToSpiteYourFace looks like on the #DemocraticPartyPlantation in #SweetHomeAlabama

U.S. Sen. Doug Jones, left, and state Rep. Chris England talk to the media after a faction of the State Democratic Executive Committee elected England as Alabama Democratic Party Chair on Nov. 2. Nancy Worley disputed the validity of the meeting and said she remained chair. But it was England who certified the party's candidates for the March 3 primary this week. (Mike Cason/mcason@al.com)

Regardless of the fact, there is a pending lawsuit over the leadership of the Alabama Democratic Party because the minority wants to rule the majority, the minority faction decided for the majority who will be on the ballot for the March primary.

The Democratic Party dispute is between factions backing England and Nancy Worley. England was elected to replace Worley as chair at a Nov. 2 meeting of the State Democratic Executive Committee.
Worley, who was first elected chair in 2013, maintains that meeting was not valid. She and her backers tried unsuccessfully to block the meeting with a lawsuit. The case is now with the Alabama Supreme Court, which has not ruled on Worley’s assertion that she remains the chair or whether the court has jurisdiction over the matter.
The Democratic National Committee recognizes England as party chair.

That's right (pun intended) the DNC recognizes the Minority faction over the traditional, loyal, Democratic base.  

So now we know for sure. 

“We not go let folk kick us around and dog us around and keep putting them back in office,” he charged from the podium. “We are not going to do that.”
Reed didn’t mention folk’s name. Didn’t have to.
Sen. Doug Jones has openly led an effort to re-boot the state party by booting Worley and re-writing party by-laws to make party leadership—the 250-member State Democratic Executive Committee (SDEC)—reflect a broader, younger swath of the state. He has been backed by the National Democratic Committee (DNC), which has withheld $10,000 a month in support funds since 2018 (“The party’s broke,” Reed says) and revoked the party leaders’ national credentials, and not yet approved the part’s delegate selection plan for the 2020 Democratic National Convention.

 No good deed goes unpunished.

Does Scher really believe that because it takes a right-of-center candidate like Doug Jones to get elected in Alabama, Democrats nationwide should shift their politics to the right and make Alabama politics the national standard? Scher may not realize it, but he is advocating that the Democratic Party reward its African-American voters by showing them that their interests, aspirations and lives don’t matter.

On a personal note, EYE would like to wish you and yours a Happy Holiday Season and EYE shall return next year.

The Alabama Democratic Minority Party vs The Alabama Democratic Majority Party, there are two sides to every story.

Regular readers are aware of the ongoing Civil War within the Alabama Democratic Party between the white minority and the black majority but rarely will the white male-dominated  Alabama media present "both sides" in a "fair and balanced" manner. 

Below is a link to an episode of The Capitol Journal podcast featuring embattled Alabama Democratic Party Chair Nancy Worley discussing "renewing a lawsuit over an opposing party faction voting her out of the office and attempting to replace her with Rep. Chris England. "Worley says she views that election as illegitimate" and EYE agree. 

 Ignore the person on the left.