Media Matters and the blog
Daily Kos are among two liberal mouthpieces who look to be on a
slippery campaign to rewrite one of the more ugly episodes
in recent memory for Democrats.
It appears they are trying revise the history that Oreo cookies were
thrown in the direction of Republican Lt. Gov. Michael Steele
at a gubernatorial debate on September 26, 2002 in Baltimore, Maryland.
(Steele is a black man, and an "Oreo" is a terribly derogatory term to
describe a black person who is perceived as "black on the outside, but
white on the inside.") At the time of the debate, Steele was the
Republican candidate for lieutenant governor. Steele was in the audience
for the debate between Democrat
Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend and Republican Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.
weeks before he and Ehrlich went on to rack up
a triumphant election victory over the incumbent Townsend.
The bottom line is in what Lt. Gov. Steele told Phillip Caston of
Capital News Service three years ago, less than three weeks
after the actual election, about his infamous encounter with the
sweet. In a November 22, 2002, piece entitled,
"Steele Makes History as First Black Governor," Caston wrote
(emphasis mine),
"At the candidates' only televised debate in late September,
there were reports that Townsend supporters passed out Oreo cookies
to represent Steele, joking he was black on the outside but white in
the middle.
"[Md. Democratic spokesman] Paulson denied the incident happened and
said the only documented accusation came from Ehrlich spokesman Paul
Schurick.
"Steele, however, said an Oreo cookie rolled to his feet during
the debate.
"'Maybe it was just someone having their snack, but it was
there,' Steele said. 'If it happened, shame on them if they are that
immature and that threatened by me.'"
Notice how Steele initially makes a half-joke about it. It's hardly
the sign of a person concocting a story. In addition, clear-thinking
observers might want to ask themselves the question: Why would Steele
want to engineer a lie after winning an election?
Daily Kos now asserts that Steele "lied." Media Matters is now
referring to the Oreo-throwing episode as a "legend" and a "baseless
allegation." Part of their craftiness is in spotlighting inconsistencies
from sources recalling the event from one evening over three years ago.
Are some inconsistencies all that surprising considering the time that
has passed and the tumultuous nature of the event that evening? (Much was written
about the crowd's very "passionate" behavior that night. Even
the host of the event acknowledged "derisive behavior, that was an
unfortunate circumstance" (10/1/02 Sun article cited below). )
These challengers also cite
a recent November 13, 2005, Baltimore Sun article that claims
that "several debate attendees" "could not corroborate" the incident. In the article, the Sun quotes the operations manager of the
building in which the debate was held. He claims, "I was in on the
cleanup, and we found no cookies or anything else abnormal." How anyone
can fully remember what was on the floor in the cleanup of a
room over three years ago is somewhat
questionable, if not very compelling. Over 2,000 people attended
the spirited debate that night, according to the Sun. (In addition, Steele himself
recounts seeing only one or two cookies. It's not hard to imagine someone else besides the quoted
individual cleaning them up.)
(Ironically, it was the Sun who first reported
the presence of Oreos at the debate in an article days after the event
entitled, "Crowd's Antics Quite Debatable" (October 1, 2002) (original
no longer free, but an accurate text copy can be found
here; hard copy on file of this writer).)
Gov. Ehrlich is quite angry about his political opponents attempting
"revisionism" of this nasty and distasteful episode. Ehrlich has repeatedly
claimed that his own father was hit in the head by one of the cookies
as he walked to his seat that contentious night ("Steele
weighs in on the Oreo incident," Baltimore Sun, November 15, 2005).
TheMediaReport.com asks ... "Unusually
high traffic" on a Tuesday afternoon in August?