Alabama Corruption Obscured by Racism: Not worthy of GOP support

Our view: Racism not worthy of GOP support
St. Clair Times

It is unlikely that Scott Beason will succumb to pressure to resign from the state Senate for making racist remarks during conversations he was recording to catch fellow legislators talking about potential bribes from gambling interests.

Although independent Sen. Harri Anne Smith, for whom Beason worked as a political consultant in 2008, said Beason’s comments were “disgusting and inexcusable” and said the Republican caucus should ask for Beason’s resignation, her opinion doesn’t carry much weight with state Republicans. For one thing, she abandoned her GOP affiliation last year. For another, she is one of the nine defendants in the cash-for-votes trial.

No, the Republican caucus is not likely to push Beason out.

The state Republican Party chairman quickly jumped to his defense, saying Beason is “one of the most honorable people” he knows and “does not have a racist bone in his body.”

The two legislators laughing it up on the tape in which Beason called black casino customers “aborigines” also are both Republicans.

The several legislators on another tape with Beason — in which he agreed that black voters would turn out in large numbers to legalize gambling because casino owners would offer free buffets and gambling credits and then bus them to the polls — were all Republicans.

Beason, who aspires to a leadership role in the Senate, also acknowledged in court that he had urged House Republicans to support a black legislator, Democrat Yvonne Kennedy of Mobile, for speaker of the House because he thought she was unorganized and couldn’t raise money from the business community. He said he thought this would benefit his party.

Beason’s entire involvement in this gambling corruption debacle has been to promote his own political career. Whether prodding fellow Republicans to make incriminating statements when they were secretly being taped, enthusiastically participating in blatantly racist conversations or meddling in the House’s choice of its leadership, Beason was calculating how each act would advance him.

He even complained on the witness stand, “I’d rather be anywhere than here. This is not helping me politically.”

He has made abundantly clear that his No. 1 priority is not representing the interests of his district, nor even in helping his party, but solely in promoting his own career. However, if he didn’t recognize how his racist comments would play in public, he’s not as politically savvy as he likes to think he is.

Beason’s comments are reprehensible. He does not deserve his party’s support.

But he has it.

GOP Chairman Bill Armistead said last week that he had never seen any examples of racism from Beason.

Judging by the evidence on Beason’s tapes, Armistead would not recognize racism if it slapped him in the face — or if he heard it in court.

In a later email, Armistead said Beason was an honorable and brave man who “will be remembered as one who helped bring down corruption in Alabama.”

That may be, but Armistead was intentionally obscuring the point.

Calls for Beason’s resignation are based not on his role in gathering evidence of corruption in the Legislature, but on his own words — words that he, unlike the other people on the tape — knew were being recorded.

Beason is not on trial, it’s true, not in the literal sense. But he surely is being tried in the court of public opinion.

Racism such as Beason and his cronies engaged in may not be a crime for the courts, but public opinion has brought down greater men for lesser offenses.