Picture this: A rich, old white man who has prospered mightily on George W. Bush's watch and is desperate to see him win again, asks a black conservative woman who preaches the Republicans' school voucher gospel to throw together a new non-profit group as a front for a media campaign against Bush's rival.
The rich old white man will help get the effort funded, kicking in 30 grand of his own money.
The black conservative woman says yes.
That's how it came down last week, when an ad campaign was born, targeted at black radio audiences in Cleveland, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Milwaukee, St. Louis, Kansas City and other cities with large black populations.
In one ad, the narrator -- the same aforementioned black conservative woman -- blasts Kerry for not showing up to vote for an extension of unemployment benefits. "It lost by one vote!" she declares. "Maybe Kerry thought the more of us who are unemployed and hurting, the more likely we would vote Democrat."
What the ad leaves out -- intentionally, no doubt -- is that the vote on that measure was scheduled when Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist knew it would be nearly impossible for Kerry to get back to Washington in time to cast his vote. Everyone knows Kerry would have voted for the extension and the dishonest ad even implies it.
The truth is, Republicans voted overwhelmingly against the bill. If it was such the right thing to do, why didn't they vote for it? Of course, you aren't supposed to think about that.
Virginia Walden-Ford, the voice behind the ads and the force behind the D.C. voucher program and the white man's designated front woman, told the Washington Post, "I want people to be informed." She pretended to be serious when she said that.
But the ads feed envy and fear, not intelligence.
For example: "His wife says she's an African-American," one ad says, referring to Kerry's wife who was born and reared in Mozambique. "While technically true, I don't believe a white woman, raised in Africa, surrounded by servants, qualifies."
Or this: "Boy, does Kerry come across as rich, white and wishy-washy."
Which brings us back to Walden-Ford’s benefactor, the moneyman behind “People of Color United,” the group that was hastily formed to qualify as a tax-exempt political advocate – not unlike MoveOn.org, the liberal group behind many of the toughest anti-Bush TV ads? MoveOn's money man is billionaire George Soros.
People of Color United is backed by J. Patrick Rooney, a septuagenarian who convinced Republicans in the U.S. Congress that the answer to rising healthcare costs was the Health Savings Account (HSA) -- those escrow accounts that allow employees to set aside some of their paycheck, tax-free, for future medical expenses. That set-aside money didn't just sit there; it went to insurance companies like Rooney's Golden Rule Insurance, which promptly made a fortune.
And that's not all. During the big prescription drug debate last year, Rooney got Republicans on Capitol Hill to throw in a $6.4 billion tax break for HSAs. Score one more for the rich old white man who pretends to care so much about poor black people.
Also, it is no coincidence that Rooney has been a pioneer in the school voucher movement, which is what made Walden-Ford a player in the Republican Party. Neither, apparently, minds playing fast and loose with the facts. For example, when U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu, a Louisiana Democrat, would not support a voucher system in the overwhelmingly black D.C. Public Schools, Walden-Ford's organization placed a newspaper ad featuring a happy-faced little black boy beside these words: "My mom wanted you to know that Senator Mary Landrieu doesn't want me to go to the same school where her children go!"
In another print ad, the group blasted the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers, the two largest teacher groups in the country. "Your union is opposing a plan that would allow poor black children in Washington, D.C. to transfer from a bad public school to a good private school," it read.
Apparently, what neither Rooney nor Walden-Ford seems to understand is that, by and large, blacks don't resent people for being rich. Some of the richest people in the nation's history have done some of the greatest good. That's what we look out for: whether the rich use some of their money to help or hurt others.
So let J. Patrick Rooney spill his fortune and Virginia Walden-Ford sell her soul if they choose. It's their money, their time and their right to free expression. The black radio stations would be better off exercising some principle and refusing the ad buys, but, hey, I'm sure they need the money.
In fact, do us a favor: Laugh all the way to the bank.
