Monday, April 23, 2007

RIP David & Juanita

David Halberstam, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Best and the Brightest, as well as twelve other books, has left us. Best and Brightest was the first political monograph I ever read as a student, and it's lessons bear review today. So now we're stuck with Tim Russert and Ann Coulter? Makes even a fiction writer like myself consider early retirement. And so went the Honorable Juanita Millender-MacDonald. The model of a public servant, e.g., someone who actually knew what that term means. She took over the term of a sadly corrupt, self-aggrandizing black politician in Compton; she's been re-elected for successive terms overwhelmingly ever since. Here was someone who showed fellow Californian Maxine Waters how one can be a House member, a role model and a strong black woman without being a harpy and a hypocrite. RIP folks.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wasn't it Tucker who Millender-McDonald replaced? I think the dude just got out of prison.

Pebbles Flintstone said...

I wonder what Halberstam would write about this cover up and shameful story about Jessica Lynch and Pat Tillman if he were alive?

Our enemies can give it a rest. We are doing a fine job on our own of overreaching and arrogance. What does the world think of our supposed moral leadership when they read this and Alberto Gonzales and the Virginia Tech massacre together? I think you should remove Cho's tape by the way.

Anonymous said...

Do you think the National press club willdo some sort of tribute to David Halberstam?

Juanita was a great soul and will be missed. However, her open seat now gives a number of young energetic African Americans a shot at the Congress.