Shameful: Government Employees “Encouraged” by Obama’s Top Education Official Via Email to Attend Rev. Sharpton’s Rally & March
Posted By Vicki McClure Davidson on August 31, 2010
Some of the hundreds of thousands of people attending the Glenn Beck 'Restoring Honor' rally in Washington, DC, August 28, 2010
Urging of government employees by a top Barack Obama official to attend Rev. Al Sharpton’s rally, designed to counter Glenn Beck’s “Restoring Honor” rally in DC, doesn’t quite violate the 1939 Hatch Act (officially known as “An Act to Prevent Pernicious Political Activities”), but it comes very, very close.
Shameful and vile.
But, not altogether surprising of this unethical administration.
From The Washington Examiner, Education secretary urged his employees to attend Sharpton’s rally:
President Obama’s top education official urged government employees to attend a rally that the Rev. Al Sharpton organized to counter a larger conservative event on the Mall.
“ED staff are invited to join Secretary Arne Duncan, the Reverend Al Sharpton, and other leaders on Saturday, Aug. 28, for the ‘Reclaim the Dream’ rally and march,” began an internal e-mail sent to more than 4,000 employees of the Department of Education on Wednesday.
Sharpton created the event after Glenn Beck announced a massive Tea Party “Restoring Honor” rally at the Lincoln Memorial, where King spoke in 1963.
Although the e-mail does not violate the Hatch Act, which forbids federal employees from participating in political campaigns, Education Department workers should feel uneasy, said David Boaz, executive vice president of the libertarian Cato Institute.
“It sends a signal that activity on behalf of one side of a political debate is expected within a department. It’s highly inappropriate … even in the absence of a direct threat,” Boaz said. “If we think of a Bush cabinet official sending an e-mail to civil servants asking them to attend a Glenn Beck rally, there would be a lot of outrage over that.”
From Hot Air Greenroom: Beck vs. Sharpton: And the Winner Is…:
…That mission, according to Beck, was to put the power-hungry “ruling class” in Washington on notice that its agenda and values are not those of the masses, who would be coming by presently to pick up the keys to the country.
Again whether intended or not, the mission had a second purpose. And that was to drive liberals further onto the defensive.
One of those liberals is race huckster Al Sharpton, who — obviously mindful of the adage “If you can’t beat ‘em, try harder to beat ‘em” — came to Washington to stage his own counter rally. So how did he do? Not surprisingly, Sharpton — who is increasingly yesterday’s news — drew a much smaller crowd that was mostly black. Equally unsurprising was his message, which was typically cloaked in racial grievance, punctuated by an insistence that King’s dream has yet to be attained.
The president, himself on the defensive, sent an emissary to Sharpton’s rally in the person of Education Secretary Arne Duncan, who spoke of education as the “civil rights issue of this generation.” Also on hand was Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton, who noted that King’s speech decades ago “reached to overcome the low points of our racial history,” insisting that “Glenn Beck’s march [sic] will change nothing.”
She is wrong. Beck has already helped foment a change in the country, if in no other way, than by stirring the pot of unrest that was already brewing when he began his television career. His event at the Lincoln Memorial didn’t resonate in the manner of Dr. King’s legendary speech, nor was it meant to. It was more of a national roll call, as contrasted with Sharpton’s counteroffensive, which was sound and fury signifying nothing. The White House ignores the attendance sheet from the Beck rally at its own peril.
From Gateway Pundit, Education Secretary Urged Employees to Attend Sharpton’s Anti-Beck Rally:
And, you thought they only did things like this in tinpot dictatorships?
Obama’s top officials are now urging government employees to attend divisive and offensive anti-conservative rallies.
From Hot Air, Education Secretary pushed employees to attend Sharpton rally:
The official line from the White House on the Glenn Beck “Restoring Honor” rally was What rally? That position is certainly understandable from a political perspective, and probably not bad from an overall perspective, either. The federal government shouldn’t take an inordinate amount of interest in lawful and peaceful political demonstrations in most cases, although certainly candidates for office should take heed of the electorate’s expressions of anger and dissatisfaction in this cycle especially.
However, it appears that one large portion of the federal government not only took an interest in another rally, but its Cabinet Secretary cajoled its staff to attend it.
[...]Russ Whitehurst, director of the liberal-leaning Brookings Institution’s Brown Center of Education Policy, said nothing like this happened when he was a Department of Education program director from 2001 to 2008: “Only political appointees would have been made aware of such an event and encouraged to attend.”
Footnote… only about 2,000 to 3,000 people, predominantly black, attended Sharpton’s race-baiting, anti-conservative rally and march.
Related:
Nuke Gingrich: CBS lowballs Beck crowd estimate
Another Black Conservative: Copycats: Liberals to hold their own Beck-like rally on Oct 2
TimesWatch: Oh No! Glenn Beck Rally ‘Overwhelmingly White and Largely Middle-Aged’
Gateway Pundit: Beck Admits He Wore Bullet-Proof Vest at Rally and NAACP Leader Says Tea Partiers Would Probably Not Applaud MLK’s Dream Speech… While They Were Applauding His Niece Across Town (Video) and CROWD ROARS at Restoring Honor Rally as MLK’s Niece Alveda King Declares: “I Too Have a Dream!” (Video) and SEIU Stands Up for “Amercan” Dream at Al Sharpton’s Counter-Freedom Rally and By the Way… Glenn Beck Raised $5.5 Million for Special Operations Warrior Fund and Obama Says He Ignored Restoring Honor Rally… He Was Out Golfing and Sen. Landrieu Tries to Tie Beck & Restoring Honor Rally to Hurricane Katrina… Fails and A Tale of Two Rallies on the Mall: Clean Conservatives vs. Filthy Libs (Video) and ALBERT PUJOLS WOWS THE CROWD at “Restoring Honor” Rally in DC (Video)
World Net Daily: Glenn Beck crowd: Not so white as advertised
Sister Toldjah: Ed. Sec. to employees: Maybe you should attend Sharpton rally
Conservative Pup: Glenn Beck or NAACP – Which would Martin Luther King Jr. Attend?
Frugal Café Blog Zone: Huge Turn-out at DC “Restoring Honor” Rally: Glenn Beck Wore Bullet-Proof Vest for Protection Against Left-wing Radicals, Clean-up of Grounds by Conservatives (video) and Liberty: Dr. Alveda King on Her Uncle Martin Luther King & Glenn Beck and Black Conservative Supports Glenn Beck Rally: Says Beck’s Values & Principles More Consistent with MLK’s Values Than “Black Civil Rights Leaders Who Have Sold Their Souls”
Nice Deb: You’ve Got To Be Kidding Me: NAACP, Think Progress, Media Matters Launch New Website To “Monitor” “Tea Party Racists” and Glenn Beck Responds To MSNBC Clods, Ed Schmultz and Larry O’Donnell and Restoring Honor Rally in DC
Sharp Right Turn: UPDATE: About Honor, Restoration, Unity, and Beck
Motivation Truth: Restoring Honor Rally Closing Prayer and Worship
No Sheeples Here: Somethin’ 4 Mutton: Standing Guard Over Liberty Edition
Legal Insurrection: Subliminal Deception
Real Clear Politics: CBS News to black woman at Beck rally, “I’m noticing that there are not a lot of minorities here”
Doug Powers, Michelle Malkin: ‘Restoring Honor’ at the Lincoln Memorial
Publius, Big Government: SEIU Misspells ‘American Dream’ at Rally Government
About the author
Comments