Tag Archives: Jim Clyburn

national news

Biden finishes selecting a Cabinet … but wait!

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

President-elect Joe Biden has finished his first key test of governing.

He has selected the men and women who will serve with him in the executive branch of the federal government he will lead beginning Jan. 20. I believe he has selected an impressive array of talented individuals to help him implement public policy on behalf of the people who have elected him.

But wait! There’s a name missing from the roster of Cabinet-level nominees I was sure I would see: Jim Clyburn.

You remember Rep. Clyburn, correct? Clyburn’s endorsement of then-Democratic candidate Biden prior to the South Carolina primary this past spring propelled Biden to an easy victory in that contest. Biden’s primary campaign had faltered in Iowa, in New Hampshire and in Nevada. Biden was given up as political road kill.

South Carolina — with its enormous African-American voting bloc — loomed just ahead. Biden told us he would win that primary. He needed help. U.S. Rep. Clyburn delivered it with his endorsement.

Biden won the Palmetto State and never looked back.

I was certain Jim Clyburn could have virtually any job in a Biden administration he would want. It might be that the president-elect asked him and Clyburn declined. It might be that Clyburn, one of the House of Representatives’ senior members, wanted to stay put and help guide President Biden’s legislative agenda through the House’s legislative labyrinth.

Surely, the president-elect with vast knowledge of the importance of political alliances would not simply pass over someone who in this political climate and in the context of the campaign that Joe Biden won personifies the definition of “kingmaker.”

I am pretty sure if nothing else that Joe and Jill Biden will put Rep. Clyburn on their Christmas card mailing list.

national news

Sanders is cooking up a conspiracy

This is one of the many things I don’t understand.

U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders is now accusing the “Democratic establishment” of conspiring to defeat his bid to win the party’s presidential nomination, that it favors Joe Biden, whose Super Tuesday blowout across the South has inflicted serious injury to the Sanders campaign.

I don’t get where Sen. Sanders gets that.

Biden’s victory was fueled in two parts by African Americans.

First came Saturday’s stunning South Carolina primary victory that came in the wake of U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn’s emotional endorsement of the former vice president. Clyburn carries fantastic clout among African Americans in his home state; he is the leading black member of Congress.

Part two occurred Tuesday night when Clyburn’s endorsement carried over into Virginia, Tennessee, Alabama, North Carolina, Arkansas, Oklahoma and then Texas … all states with substantial African American voter blocs. Biden won them all.

Indeed, do I need to remind everyone that the Democratic “establishment” was calling two weeks ago for Biden to step aside? He had performed dismally in Iowa and New Hampshire. Then came Nevada. He was considered the equivalent of political road kill. Leading Democrats wanted him to bow out, to go away quietly, to cede this fight to the next generation.

Now that Biden has breathed new life into his campaign he becomes a tool of the establishment? That’s what Sanders wants us to believe? C’mon, man! Sen. Sanders is concocting a conspiracy theory where none exists.