Author: Rock Hackshaw

Yvette Clarke represents the 11^th congressional district in Brooklyn. Her mother (Una Clarke) is the former city council woman from Brooklyn’s 40^th councilmanic district. When Una was term-limited in 2001, her daughter Yvette succeeded her in the council seat. Una was born on the island of Jamaica and loves to highlight her roots as a maroon. Yvette was born in Brooklyn, and loves her Caribbean-American heritage and culture as much as she loves her African-American birthright. Maroons are militant people: they don’t take too much shit. Bill Perkins was lucky that Una wasn’t at City Hall yesterday.

So the Democrats National Convention Committee selected Room Eight New York Politics to send two bloggers to Denver -to cover the party’s convention: whoop-dee-damn-doo. Don’t get me wrong: I am honored to be selected. It is a privilege. It is also a once in a lifetime kinda thing that hopefully -if I do have grandkids- I could tell them about it. And when the editors (Ben Smith and Gur Tsbar) purchased my plane tickets, I felt I have won a small bingo in a catholic senior center. So now I have to find some seed money for accommodations and greasy-spoons, but there are worse things I could be doing in the dog days of August. Of course I wish it was Sade Bederinwa or Darlene Rodriguez or Liza Sabater (instead of Gatemouth) accompanying me on this run: but c’est la vie. Don’t worry folks; I will put a mark on my underwear, soft things and toiletries, etc/lol. And I will hide my rap music collection and my reefer stash (you never know with these wannabee black guys).

File this one under “Rock’s Predictions”. And for my detractors: don’t forget that as it relates to percentile, my political calls usually score in the high-nineties. I am willing to take bets on this one but I will offer one caveat. I don’t expect any takers, but I could always be surprised. So if you are out there and itching to try me; let’s get it on then; set it.

In Brooklyn’s East New York neighborhood, the conviction of Assemblywoman Diane Gordon for soliciting bribes has left a vacancy in the 40th Assembly District. A crowded field is shaping up. The word is that next Tuesday when nominating petitions start circulating, you can expect to see at least six candidates. They are namely: Inez Barron (wife of NYC councilmember Charles Barron); Earl Williams- the current septuagenarian male district leader of the democrats- who is the presumptive favorite; Winchester Keys, who was once chief-of-staff to the former assemblyman (Ed Griffith/ prior to Ms. Gordon); Nathan Bradley, the current chief-of-staff to Ms. Gordon; Kenneth S. Evans, an attorney and community activist who has run for this seat before; and John Whitehead, who challenged Charles Barron for his council seat just three years ago. There have been some persistent rumors that there will be at least one other male entrant, who will bring the total to seven candidates. We shall see soon enough.

What most in mainstream media (MSM) refuses to acknowledge is that this absurd pseudo-issue of Rev. Jeremiah Wright, and his lengthy relationships (since there are many different types here) with Barack Obama, has exposed, (a) white-America’s hypocrisy, lies, denial and immaturity; and (b) black-America’s paranoia, fears, distrust and immaturity. And maybe that exposure was a good thing; maybe. So as a preface, let me clarify a few things in this column.

I am defending what seems to have gotten lost in all the MSM hoopla around this individual (Wright): the man’s right to expound his opinions. Admittedly, I find some of his rantings -and also some of his antics- to be personally offensive, somewhat; but as long as he doesn’t yell out for a non-existent fire in a crowded place, he has -like every other American citizen- freedom of speech rights, that are protected under our hallowed constitution. It looks as though many whites, blacks and citizens of other races, nationalities and ethnicities, have conveniently forgotten this. And this deliberate and convenient form of amnesia is probably because Rev. Jeremiah Wright is a Negro; or as they say with another word (which is commonly accepted): “black”.

Last night, one of Brooklyn’s top Democratic political clubs, held their second round endorsement meeting of this 2008 cycle. Under the chairmanship of recently elected president Chris Owens, the Central Brooklyn Independent Democrats (CBID) saw many potential candidates parade before their members in an interview process. Included in the crowd were Congressman Jerold Nadler, State Senator Velmanette Montgomery, Kevin Powell and Steve Harrison (the latter pair are both challengers for congressional seats). Also in attendance was East-Flatbush State Senator Kevin Parker.

The crowd was not as large as some CBID crowds go, less than 100 people came in and out during the lengthy meeting. In the questions and answers sessions, one candidate may have shown some leopard spots that may come back to embarrass him real soon. That candidate was Kevin Parker. Now before many of my detractors here jump all over me for this news item, please go and verify my reporting with club members who attended. TYVM.

In my humble opinion, the writer we know here as Gatemouth, loves to be the irascible joker at times, as a way of refusing to face up squarely to opposing arguments or columnists. His Houdini-like intellectual tricks are all meant to derive some perverse pleasure from his mental masturbation exercises; he is also a provocateur par excellence. He engages on his terms only, and he tries to use verbal inebriation as a cop out when he is cornered. He is also a recalcitrant school-boy type, who loves to escape from reality with verbose exposes that sometimes border on the absurd. He rarely ever apologizes; but that is Gatey, and that’s why we still read him, I guess. Most of us like him a little bit, and tolerate him a lot more, exactly because of who he is: pain in the ass and all.

Word out of the 35th City Council District is that NYC councilwoman Letitia “Tish” James is in political trouble, and may be headed for legal trouble too. Rumors have been circulating for over a year now that Ms. James was under investigation of some sort(s). The veracity of this rumor has never been confirmed by official sources, but as time has elapsed the rumor has perpetuated. Given the recent scandals surrounding Speaker Christine Quinn and also many of the other council members -for their improper use of taxpayer dollars (at least prima facie)- it is not surprising that at least three potential challengers are already lining up to unseat Ms. James -if she is still in office next year. At least one of these challengers believes that it will be an open seat. Sources are saying that Tish is going down (for the full count). They expect the shoe to drop real soon. We will see; all I am doing here is giving you the 4-1-1 in terms of what is being said on the rough and tough political streets of Brooklyn. And though I may piss-off many of my detractors by doing this: some folks seem to think I do this real well, and they love to read my columns.

Come September, in Brooklyn’s 21st senatorial district, the incumbent Kevin Parker is being challenged by NYC councilman Dr. Kendall Stewart. The pompous Senator Parker-who once “pooh-poohed” this challenge- is probably about to find himself in a mud-wrestling match, over the upcoming months. Word is that both sides are gearing up for a big fight. Are you really surprised?

A political operative from Bed-Stuy recently asked me whether or not Caribbean-Americans were trying to pull a coup in Brooklyn politics; I said no. He told me that rumors were out there that Caribs were intent on challenging Congresswoman Yvette Clarke, Assemblyman Camara (43rdAD), Senator John Sampson (19thSD) and Parker, all at the same time. I don’t believe an iota of this. I have heard of no such organized attempt to change the power equation. As it stands now, Caribbean-Americans hold two city council seats (Stewart and Mathieu Eugene), and one Assembly seat (Nick Perry/ 58thAD). They hold no congressional seats, no state senate seats, and only two district leaderships out of forty-two in Brooklyn. Thus the perception that Caribs are on some political power play (or trip) is so untrue it isn’t funny. This misperception dates back to when Panamanian-born State Senator Waldaba Stewart, was elected in Central Brooklyn- back in the 1970s.There has always been this perception (exaggeration) that Caribbean-Americans hold some disproportionate edge in political power/influence in Brooklyn’s majority-black areas; the reality however is that this has never ever been the case. Caribs have never held more than three offices at any one time in Brooklyn’s political history. Given that they are one million strong in the borough, you would think that it will be only fair if they do make some power moves; but then the Caribbean-American vote is not organized: it has never been organized. It will probably never be organized. What does Caribbean-American mean anyway?