A possible successor to embattled RNC Chair Michael Steele? According to FNC contributor Cal Thomas, another African American, Ken Blackwell, who is “very, very intelligent, and articulate, and smart, and as Joe Biden would say, ‘clean.'”
During an America’s News HQ segment Saturday, co-anchor Rick Folbaum asked the conservative columnist whether Steele should stay at his GOP post after his controversial comments about the Afghan war. After saying that he “was an early supporter of Michael Steele…because he represented a different face for the party” and had a compelling life story, Thomas answered, “But, he’s not the only African-American in the party. One of those who ran against him for the chairmanship, Ken Blackwell, former Secretary of state of Ohio, very, very intelligent, articulate, and smart, and as Joe Biden would say, ‘clean’ candidate.”* After smiling at his peculiar homage to the Veep, he continued, “If he’s still out there and still wants the job, I think…he might be a good candidate for it.”
As the reader may recall, Biden apologized for similar remarks about then Senator Barack Obama, his then Democratic primary opponent during the 2008 election season. (Biden characterized Obama as “the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy.”) To the author, it seemed strange at best that Thomas would intentionally happily echo what many consider to be a racially-charged “compliment” for another charismatic black candidate. Perhaps, he was tippling before his holiday weekend appearance on the America’s News HQ: It might help explain his racially rasping remark but it certainly does not excuse it.
*America’s News HQ – 07/03/10 (@6:06 p.m. ET
Tags: America's News HQ, barack obama, Cal Thomas, GOP, Joe Biden, Ken Blackwell, Michael Steele, Rick Folbaum, RNC, Weird Al Yankovic
Carpe Diem 
July 5, 2010 at 6:54 pm
I thought at the time, and I still think, that the comment ‘clean’ by VP Biden meant ‘no scandals’. To immediately consider it to be a racist remark shows the bias of the people who so think. I can’t help but think Cal Thomas meant the same think about Blackwell. Let’s at least try to get past looking for racism to enter every conversation and/or remark. Haven’t we grown past that? As long as people insist on taking things in the worst possible light, there will be no advancement.
July 6, 2010 at 1:12 am
Scandal-free is what “clean” means in the political vernacular. The rule I try to live by is to always assume the least objectionable definition of what someone says -especially when spoken extemporaneously- unless I have other clear and convincing evidence to the contrary. I believe, for example, that I would be be correct in reading “racism” into something similar being said by Mel Gibson or Jeremiah Wright.
A simple lesson I learned as a child is that falsely accusing another of a wrong is always a greater wrong than the one you accused that person of committing.