Brownback's Last Gasp

What does a Presidential candidate do when his campaign in languishing due to lack of funds, interest, and support? Why, play the race card of course... in this case, in the form of "white guilt."

Shamnesty proponent and floundering GOP Presidential wanna-be Sam Brownback is trotting out dead horse- he and an "unnamed" Democrat will be offering a resolution in the Senate this week calling for the United States to apologize for slavery and segregation.

Brownback was never going to generate any interest with the base because of his support for the Kennedy/McCain immigration travesty, so now he's pandering to another racial minority group and those suffering from "white guilt." This is nothing but the death rattle of a comatose campaign, a pathetic attempt to jump start a campaign that was dead before it ever started.

Thanks for playing, Sam. Now get yourself ready for life after politics, when the good voters of Kansas toss your butt out of office for pandering to special interest and trying to cede our Country to illegal invaders from south of the border.
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From The Boston Globe:

Brownback to pitch proposal apologizing for slavery
Says he expects a fight, won't call for reparations
By Jenn Abelson, Globe Staff | October 16, 2007

Senator Sam Brownback, a Republican trying to inject new life into his beleaguered presidential campaign, plans to offer a resolution this week for Congress to apologize for slavery and segregation.

Brownback, of Kansas, told The Boston Globe's editorial board yesterday he will join an unnamed Democrat in sponsoring the proposal. He said he expects a tough fight on the resolution, even though it will not include any call for reparations.

"They were federal policies," he said. "They were wrong. The only way for us to move forward . . . is at the end of day acknowledging those, taking ownership for it, and asking for forgiveness."

Brownback, in a wide-ranging interview yesterday, conceded that his campaign has languished since finishing a disappointing third in August in the Ames straw poll in Iowa. The 51-year-old Kansas senator remains in the trailing group of Republicans in the polls and in fund-raising, and says he will drop out of the race unless he places in the top four in the first-in-the-nation caucuses in Iowa.

"We're trying some different plays," Brownback said.

He divulged his plan for a bipartisan slavery apology just days after reaching across the political aisle to join a Democratic presidential hopeful, Senator Joe Biden of Delaware, in pushing a proposal for a federal system in Iraq - with strong Kurdish, Sunni, and Shia regional governments - as a way to end the bloodshed and allow US troops to withdraw from combat patrols.

"This is a system that can work," Brownback said. "You devolve power out in order to keep the country together. I fundamentally believe this will be the final status politically of Iraq."

Brownback, an outspoken opponent of abortion, embryonic stem-cell research, and same-sex marriage, has tried to court the social conservative base of the Republican Party. But conservatives have yet to unite behind a candidate, and some evangelical leaders have suggested supporting a third-party candidate.

Brownback's bipartisan gambit may be a way to attract some Democrats and independents, said Blease Graham, a political science professor at the University of South Carolina.

"This softer approach may make a Republican candidate more attractive," Graham said. "But in a partisan political world, I'm not sure how much resonance these issues are going to have among a Republican constituency."

In Iowa, people can register as a member of the party whose caucus they plan to vote in on the day of the vote. In New Hampshire, independents can vote in the first-in-the-nation Republican primary.

Mychal Massie, chairman of the National Leadership Network of Black Conservatives-Project 21, a think tank in Washington D.C., criticized Brownback's plans for a slavery apology resolution as "absurd and ridiculous." Project 21 does not endorse presidential candidates, but Massie said he personally is backing Republican presidential hopeful Duncan Hunter.

"Brownback finds himself in a failing campaign with no hope under the sun of being elected and he is reaching out and exploiting blacks and using them to try and get a few votes," Massie said. "It's not going to work."

Brownback's visit to Boston included a speech Sunday to members of the Catholic Lawyers Guild on abortion and the need for a more expansive view of life. Last night, he addressed Boston University students on US-Africa relations and its effect on America's security interests. The United States needs to do more to stop the spread of Islamic governments friendly to Al Qaeda that could provide havens for terrorists, he said.

Brownback also praised Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts, for helping lead the push for the immigration bill.

"It's been very hard," he said. "I have never been beat on so much in my entire life as during this immigration debate."

Jenn Abelson can be reached at abelson@globe.com.
© Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company