How low can they go?
Despite the Rev. Al's axe handle, there weren't any real fireworks when the Demo presidential candidates showed up at the NAACP convention. However, that didn't mean there weren't moments of hilarity. As Noel from Sharp Knife observed in the comments to this post, "The best part was when they started arguing about who had done the most jail-time." As reported in the Washington Post:

The forum also featured the unusual spectacle of candidates competing to boast of their jail records. During a discussion about restoring the voting rights of felons who have served their time, Sharpton said he was the only candidate who had been in jail, saying he served a "redemptive" sentence. But Kerry interjected, saying that he too had been to jail. A spokesman later said Kerry spent a night in jail after a Vietnam War protest.

Woo hoo!

But the best was yet to come. After NAACP honchos excoriated the candidates who didn't show up at the whinefest, Smilin' Joe Lieberman showed up on hands and knees to beg forgiveness:

After offering the NAACP another apology for skipping the candidates' forum and then ticking off his own civil rights credentials, Lieberman praised the NAACP for its work during the Florida recount. That's when things became absurd. "We didn't realize at the time, Al Gore and I, that we not only needed Kweisi Mfume fighting for justice here in Florida counting votes," Lieberman said, "we need him on the Supreme Court where the votes really counted. Maybe that'll happen some day."

Let's see, aside from never attending law school, Kweisi is most famous for fathering several illegitimate children by different mothers. Or as Thomas Lipscomb engagingly puts it:

Kweisi Mfume's list of illegitimate children makes [Jesse] Jackson look in serious need of Viagra

Maybe instead of comparing their stays in the hoosegow, they could have talked about their kids!

No wonder Howard Kurtz is referring to the 9 Dwarves as the Pander Bears and actually calls on Bubba for behavior lessons:

On June 13, 1992, candidate Bill Clinton went before Jesse Jackson and the Rainbow Coalition and said:

"You had a rap singer here last night named Sister Souljah. . . . Her comments before and after Los Angeles [meaning the riots] were filled with a kind of hatred that you do not honor today and tonight. Just listen to this, what she said: She told The Washington Post about a month ago, and I quote, 'If black people kill black people every day, why not have a week and kill white people? . . . So if you're a gang member and you would normally be killing somebody, why not kill a white person?' . . .

"If you took the words 'white' and 'black' and reversed them, you might think David Duke was giving that speech."

That encounter -- what journalists have dubbed "pulling a Sister Souljah" -- showed that Clinton was willing to stand up to one of his party's interest groups. It is the sort of moment that has conspicuously been missing this year as the Democratic candidates have moved from one conference to another (abortion rights advocates, blacks, gays) pledging their support.

When Bubba can be held up as a good example, things are getting pretty bad.