It has long been held (or assumed) that African American voters tend to be single issue people focused almost exclusively on racial or civil rights concerns. Thus, many Black politicians have long assumed that as long as they did not violate certain racial norms, they could safely take non-progressive or wrong-headed positions on other key issues and still get re-elected in predominantly Black districts.

Well, the voters in the Washington, D.C. suburb of Prince George’s County, Maryland last week proved the above assumption to be wrong. They voted Democrat Al Wynn out of office. The primary reason for ousting Wynn appeared to have been his 2002 vote for Public Law Number 107-243. This was the resolution which essentially gave President Bush the authority to invade and militarily occupy Iraq – a country which had done absolutely nothing to the U.S. and posed no threat to the U.S.

It has been well documented that President Bush tricked Congress into authorizing the “Use of Military Force Against Iraq” by supplying it with faulty military intelligence (and unadulterated lies) which alleged that Saddam Hussein’s Iraq had “weapons of mass destruction;” was somehow involved in the 911 terrorist attack on the U.S. and was attempting to acquire nuclear arms.

We now know that every “we must go to war” argument supplied by Bush was not true. But among the people fooled by Bush was Al Wynn. He was one of only four members of the 42-member Congressional Black Caucus who voted to give Bush the authority to invade Iraq. Specifically, Wynn said he voted for the war because former Secretary of State Colin Powell said it was justified.

It appeared to have totally escaped Wynn’s mind that despite his Black skin, Powell was a vetted member of the neo-conservative Bush war machine. Powell went before the United Nations and, in effect, lied to the world in a bid to get international support for the war. The only intelligent thing Powell did as far as the disastrous Iraq war is concerned was resign from the Bush administration before some historians began labeling it the worst presidency in American history.

Out of the Iraq war confusion emerged public interest lawyer Donna Edwards who attacked Wynn for his vote on the war. In her first run against him she lost by three percentage points. But last Tuesday, as Barack Obama was winning the Maryland Democratic Party primary, Edwards was comfortably defeating Wynn.

In some respects, the end of Wynn’s 16-year-career in Congress is a sad thing. Nevertheless, his loss is justified. Black politicians cannot make non-progressive, wrong-headed, neo-conservative votes in Congress, state legislatures or on city councils and expect to be continually re-elected simply because they give good, civil rights type speeches.

Wynn was punished for supporting at evil war and the punishment was justified. Other Black politicians should take note.

[You can share your thoughts on the above commentary or any other topic by emailing Robert Taylor at TaylorMediaPrime@yahoo.com or by leaving a brief message at 202-657-8872.]