A Favorite for RNC Chair Belonged to Exclusive, ‘White Only’ Clubs
Nevertheless, many Republicans remained worried. As one Republican insider without a candidate in the fight put it, “Dawson is a ticking time bomb.” Among the issues is a 2003 interview in which he explained his political coming of age:
I’ve always been involved in politics. And I guess it goes all the way back to my school career and education. I, in the 1960s was a product of school segregation, where we took our schools and completely disbanded them, and made racial equality. Fifty-Fifty. And the kids had no choices. They closed Booker T. Washington, Blease [Graham, moderator of the forum], down here. A pretty good school. Closed it and sent the students to A. C. Flora, across town. And they did it over the summer because the laws had been changed by the politicians. And, the day that school opened, we were on CBS news with the buses turned upside down, and one of them lit on fire. By folks who didn’t want to go to school there. Not folks who did.
The end of that story was, I was standing in a bathroom in public school. … This scar over here [pointing to his forehead] was from a baseball bat. I will tell you it was a pretty harsh environment. Government reached into my life and grabbed me and shook me at the age of fifteen. I remember how blatant it was that government just thought that they knew better, that government just thought they knew better what to do in my school. And I can’t say it was so much racial. I can say that people had a lot of stuff thrust on them because politicians thought they knew better. Whether they did or didn’t, I don’t know. But from that day on I’ve always been politically active, and wanted my voice heard. Not always right. And my opinion is not always consistent with everyone else’s. but I care greatly about the State we live in, and greatly about the idea of freedom.
It does not take much imagination to foresee that MSM outlets (and even conservative ones) will be consumed with a racial storyline if Dawson is selected. If Dawson prevails, the media could not be expected to ignore the irony that during the Obama presidency, the GOP selected a chairman who was motivated to enter politics because he resented the federal government’s forced integration of the South.
In addition to his already disclosed past membership in the all-white Forest Lake Country Club, Dawson was also an officer in 2004 of a social club, the Camellia Ball (which holds events at the Forest Lake Country Club). According to information obtained by Pajamas Media (including photos), the Camellia Ball is an exclusive social organization with no minority members, which presents débutantes to South Carolina society. According to a source familiar with the Camellia Ball, there is no explicit all white charter, although it has been all white “by tradition, choice and practice.”
When asked for comment specifically about membership in the Camellia Ball, the Dawson camp repeatedly refused to respond one way or the other to the report, contending that it was just “gossip.” Those refusals to respond were followed by two emails from the executive director of the South Carolina GOP, Jay W. Ragley, challenging the decision to run the story, but which also refused to address the substance of the allegations:
It’s disappointing that you’d consider a two-week-old posting on a gossip blog run by a paid political consultant enough grounds to pursue a “story” on this historic [inauguration] day.
I said I would take that as his official statement and again asked for any further comment and whether I could take the story’s facts as true. I received this response:
You’re not a credible journalist because if you were, you would be writing a “story” on facts and not innuendo from a gossip blog. From your former writings, you clearly think you must always be right and everyone else must always be wrong.”
However, a longtime South Carolina political figure responding to our inquiry stated, “They don’t exactly use it in the print promotions, but the Camellia Ball has always been all white. This isn’t a big secret in South Carolina.”
(It is not clear whether these issues or other factors caused the top elected Republicans in his state to sit on the sidelines throughout Dawson race, despite a letter obtained in draft form by this reporter, sent by Dawson’s operative requesting formal pledges of support from Governor Mark Sanford and Senators Jim DeMint and Lindsay Graham. No endorsements were forthcoming.)
There is no clear front-runner for the RNC chairmanship at this point, although Dawson has been mentioned as one of the favorites. It remains to be seen what effect, if any, these revelations will have on his candidacy.
The RNC candidates are vying for credibility on a variety of issues ranging from technology and party building to conservative credentials and media skills. But in the end it may well come down to which contender can help the GOP solve its problem with minority voters — or at least not make the problem worse.
Reverend Wright couldn’t be reached for comment.
Why not an African-American or Latino or Asian? I am not in any of those categories but want to show the world that there are conservatives in every age and ethnic group.
I am sure that Katon Dawson’s selection as RNC chair would be supported by most in the GOP. It will be interesting to see how this works out . I beieve we are talking here about whether the GOP will have a future as a major party . If the GOP fails to attract more minority voters ( who will be the majority by 2042) it will not survive as a major party. That is reality.
Michael Steele would probably be the best pick. For one, he’s probably the only one of the group who claims to be a conservative, has been tested by a very vicious crowd (try being a black conservative in Maryland or metro DC) and is still a conservative.
I just read that Dawson pulled out of the race. That’s a shame.
The thing is, we don’t need to “show the world” anything, other than we have a rational political/fiscal policy and we’re sticking to it.
“Showing the world” is how we got this clown of a president.
Ms. Rubin:
“In addition to his already disclosed past membership in the all-white Forest Lake Country Club, Dawson was also an officer in 2004 of a social club, the Camellia Ball (which holds events at the Forest Lake Country Club). According to information obtained by Pajamas Media (including photos), the Camellia Ball is an exclusive social organization with no minority members, which presents débutantes to South Carolina society. According to a source familiar with the Camellia Ball, there is no explicit all white charter, although it has been all white “by tradition, choice and practice.””
Y’know what? After we learned what kind of racist hate Jeremiah Wright was spewing from his pulpit and into the “Tuvok” ears of Barak Obama,
-and after having millions of white voters totally dissed by a rhyme at the Inaugural that “the white will choose what’s right”,
…Mr. Dawson’s associations in all-white clubs just doesn’t add up to very much.
Now if you’ve got a copy of his KKK memebrship card or a photo of him in uniform at an American Nazi Party rally, that would be a different story.
But this?
Small beer.
And for the record, I think Steele is the best guy for the gig,(for the reasons MikeT outlined in #4 above).
5.shrubnose. Not Dawson,it was Saltsman that pulled out. For some reason I get these guys mixed up . I wonder why . My guess is, this will help Dawson . Maybe he will pull it out. That would be great !
“When it was revealed that he belonged to a “whites only” club,”
So did Robert Byrd.
The GOP can’t win nationally with this kind of racial baggage. A minority Chairman might help a little, but the pendulum has swung. It’s going to be tough for the RNC to rebuild among whites, let alone minorities.
Peace.
DS
Ms Rubin gets a clear shot at the nail, but this time only whacks her own thumb, and gives me a headache in the process. This nonsense of “showing the world” and fretting that the GOP will be seen as a “throwback” to a less-diverse time is absurd.
First, playing Democrat-Lite games like this are what got the GOP – and by extension, the country – into this mess. Conservatism has no room for racial labels. They are meaningless. Find the best man for the job, and if he happens to be purple with orange spots, then so be it.
Second, get your history right. *which* party was it that initiated secession, and fired on Union bases in 1861? Which party was it that retained its choke hold on the South after 1877? Which party was it that gave the Klan a home, well into the second half of the 20th century? Which party stood in the way of the Civil Rights acts of 1866 and 1964? Which party ceaselessly seeks to divide people along racial and other such lines, without regard to performance? Yeah, that’s right, the Democrat party. The notion that the GOP is a party of racists and scoundrels and the Democrat party is not is absurd: cf, my remark above about purple and orange spots.
Thirdly, I do not give a damn what “the world” thinks. I’d rather have the rest of the world trembling in fear about what we might do if irritated. Almost none of the world beyond our borders lives in anything like the freedom we enjoy (for now), and and are fed a steady diet of bull cookies about how evil and imperialist we are by their dictators, hanging onto their power by their thumbnails. Of COURSE they won’t hear the truth.
I’m in a “Whites only club” too!
It’s called MY FAMILY.
BET network, Essence mag, Oprah guffawing that she has “Some good white folk” workin’ for her et al is ‘OK’ though.
Reverse racism at its finest!
Robert Byrd didn’t wait until 2004 to hang up his white hood though
I’m not familiar with Dawson or if would be the best choice, but it seems silly to make a big deal over his being a member / attendee at a (benevolent) ball introducing white debutantes into society when the president himself was a member of a (malevolent) all black racist church his entire adult life.
Such double standards are truely exasperating *huff*
What’s wrong with Steele? I think he would be the best. I guess I’ve seen him the most on tv and don’t really know the others. But I like him.
Define “whites only”.
No black members does not mean “whites only”.It is against the law to discriminate on the basis of race and I do not believe that the club has no black members because they are not allowed.
How many white members does the NAACP have?How many white people are in the Black Congressional Caucus?How many men belong to NOW…?How many straight people belong to GLAD?
Sometimes there are just some groups that other people may not want to join.Age you trying to suggest that if Colin Powell,Condaleeza Rice or Oprah Winfrey wanted to join that club they could not because they are black?
In case everyone missed the memo….R’s have to be above reproach. This may be unfair, but it is what it is.
Rule 1…when you are in a hole, stop digging.
Let’s move on to someone else, please.
Wow! Jennifer, you’ve really hit bottom. Just another race baiting liberal dumbsh*t. Time to check out on you.
Trinity Church (BHO’s spiritual home for decades) was not a problem becaue it was black and it was not a problem because it was anti-white. Trinity was a problem because it was anti-American and Marxist (as Black Liberation Theology is warmed over marxism with some added stupidity).
Freedom of association is a fundamental right and the clearest expression of freedom. As long as this Forest Lake Country Club was not anti-American, or marxist, or socialist, or anything else of the sort, I have no problem with them deciding who they want to associate with. Everyone else does this, as is their right. It’s only for the “white” grouping that this sounds bad. It’s about time we grew up.
P.S. The way Rev. Lowery pointed out that whites need to “accept what is right” during the friggin’ inaugural, I find it disingenuous for anyone to complain about a whites-only country club. This hypocrisy has really gotten to be too much.
Delia,
It’s racism dear.
Reverse racism is what we should all practice.
There is no such thing as an african American that was born in America. You are black. Africa is a place, not a race. If you put something in front of being an American, please go there and stay as you are not fit to lick the boots of the men who have served this nation.
@12
Don’t be so sure it’s whites only. DNA might surprise you some day.
Peace.
DS
Uncle Mo, Amen to that.
I’m of Finnish/Irish/English lineage but I don’t need to call myself a Finnish/English/Irish ‘hyphen’ American.
My husband is Italian/German which makes my offspring Finnish/Italian/Irish/German-English…*ouch* ha-ha
Seriously. The whole “African-American” thing is tiresome. Obama called himself a “Mutt” but worked the whole “African American” thing to the hilt even though his Father is NOT African American. Yadda, yadda.
Sarc/
Lets start calling BHO a Black American, if ‘American’ is not good enough. (That is the best title anyone can have in the world!) Enough of the term African American every day (forever). Should White Americans be called European Americans? Or should they attached their heritage European country? There is one Italian-American from California in the US House that needs to voted out of office.
Whites Only Club. How is that a problem? More like a hiccup.
Besides, aren’t there Blacks Only Clubs and Organizations like BLACK Miss America, BLACK Leader’s Club, BLACK Entertainment Television, …………………
I am proud to be “White”. Actually, from now on I shall be European-American since my relatives are Anglo-Saxon. Doesn’t matter that they came to America 200 years ago. I am part English, Scottish, German and French. So, don’t ask me to fill in ‘White’ on any more forms when everyone else is given a heritage and the only choice I get is a color that isn’t even accurate.
Everyone else is call Asian-American, African-American, Indian-American…………… From now on it is politically incorrect to call someone White.
Someone needs to start an organization called NAANP -
National Association for the Advancement of Non-Colored People
Let’s fight against these Black only organizations.
I congratulate Jennifer for asking tough questions …The reality here is that Dawson’s story is THE story of “Social Conservatives” elevated stature within today’s GOP. Let’s look at Dawson’s story for what it represents —The Truth!…The GOP enticed Southerners who were frustrated about Fed involvement within Civil, uh, States Rights. The GOP correctly predicted that the party could dominate Presidential politics by recruiting Southern states which are numerous and loyal (ref: “yellow dog Democrats”)..You won’t get a lot of support for your column because it’s well known that “race” has such a profound impact on the growth of the GOP in the South. NOW “demographics” suggest that the Party “needs minorities” to sustain itself. That may sound good from where YOU sit but it’s not going to move Southerners one iota (as Steele would say: “yakety yak-yak”). “Race” still means a lot in the South. Ask Obama. John McCain got 65% of White DEMOCRAT vote in Louisiana!..Now, I KNOW that we’ll keep hearing about “Conservatism is color blind” which translates to young people as “Conservatives are blind to the fact that their Party has no color”..If the GOP has ANY desire to “reach out”, the choice is between Steele and Anuzi. My guess is that they’ll go with the chalk (Duncan,Dawson) or worse, Blackwell (who couldn’t recruit his FAMILY to join the GOP but he’s a “safe Black”.)…At the end of the day, The Yellow Dog still bites. The Party’s future will rest on when the GOP musters the courage to put that old dog out of it’s misery.
I don’t see why a man’s membership in a private organization matters at all. I’m white… Would I be able to join the New Black Panthers or the Nation of Islam or the Five Percenters? Are prominent blacks who are members of said (all black) organizations criticized for it?
Do Republicans go out of their way to be bigoted toolbags against anyone who isn’t a straight white Christian male?
To me it seems that way. Nice knowing ya, GOP.
Who cares? The blacks almost universally voted for Obama and the Dems downticket. I’m tired of appeasing them. Ignore the howls. Pick the best person to run the party. I care not his color.
My vote goes to Newt Gingrich. He knows what he’s doing. My second choice is Michael Steele, although his resume is a bit light. His beliefs are solid, and he’s non-divisive.
You mean like the Congressional Black Caucus? Like La Raza? I wish he WOULD join White only clubs.
“The GOP can’t win nationally with this kind of racial baggage”
Racial baggage? The twisted irony in all this dreadful identity politics is that the Democrat Party is the Slave Plantation.
“Do Republicans go out of their way to be bigoted toolbags against anyone who isn’t a straight white Christian male?”
This commenter must have been indoctrinated at one of the more expensive Ivy Tower’s of Higher Idiocy. By the way didn’t this all change after Hillary Clinton lost to Obama and all of the sudden the narrative became ‘white people would not vote for a black man’ instead of ‘straight white Christian males’ because so many of Hillary Clinton’s white women needed to be guilted into voting for the Slave Plantation racists?
I want Alfonzo Rachel from Macho Sauce as leader of the GOP, he despises identity politics as much as I while understanding the value of Liberty and those Conservatives principles protecting this treasure better than anyone.
Enough of the hypocrisy! As long as there are other race exclusive groups out there like the NAACP, Congressional Black Caucus, and La Raza, this is a non-issue to me. In fact, it goes a long, long way towards towards highlighting the double standards in this country makes me want to cite our First Amendment right to free association.
The race BS needs to stop. I’m sorry to see Ms. Rubin playing this hypocritical political correctness game.
Could it be that no minorities wanted to join this country club? Regardless, I don’t see where he did anything wrong. Blacks can have their “private” clubs and whites have no desire to join. So couldn’t that work both ways?
I’m all for equality; but it goes to far when you are criticized for being with people that you have a common bond with.
Personally, I think Dawson should join the Congressional Black Caucus to show just how racially tolerant he is.
I wonder if Jennifer Rubin would wright a story on how discriminated Dawson is after being denied entry because of his race?
Regarding Katon.
I refer you all to the article that came out on Wednesday that says boys with unpopular names tend to break the law.
Katon? Anybody else you know with that name?
Racism cuts both ways and liberals refuse to recognize that. There is ONLY white racism, no other racism exists.
It matters because…
1) He would be torn to shreds over it.
2) A man who freely associates with such a group is morally suspect as a probable racist.
3) There are solid candidates who not only don’t have this baggage, but are as qualified or more so. Some of them happen to also be black conservatives who have actually had their conservatism brutally challenged by the left.
For what it is worth – Forest Lake is an in-town club that has about a 15 year waiting list for ANYONE to get in. Perhaps no blacks have waited out the 15 years… or should they be moved to the front of the line?
The Republican party has no future as a social conservative southern white old men party. It should go back to its roots: liberalism!
Real, classic liberalism I mean, not the liberalism as euphemism for socialism. The liberalism of the Founding Fathers. And the Republican party should dare to use the s-word, call out the Dems on their socialism.
The Republican party needs to win over young urban voters. I mean urban in the literal sense, as in city people. It should be the party of opportunity, enterprise, capitalism, getting the government off our backs.
Socialists within the Democratic party since 1968 have successfully coopted the “liberalism” label and with it the keys to the Constitution. Now Obama is trying to coopt Lincoln and Reagan.
Reagan was a Hollywood liberal… The Republican party should reclaim its heritage. Lincoln was ours, the Dems were the party of slavery.
The racial thing is irrelevant. Why? Because the real hatred and bias is now coming from the black community and not the whites. The liberals have been successful, think rev. wright, in teaching blacks to hate the whites and America. They’ve also achieved their goal of taking away the motivation, honor and initiative of the minorities by keeping them on the dole for generations, thereby insuring a voter base.
It doesn’t matter what the conservatives do, think, or say; they will be portrayed by the msm and the left as racists. The responsible and honorable blacks such as Michael Steele who are conservatives are ridiculed and called Uncle Toms by the “I’ve sold my soul to welfare” crowd.
We need to stop worrying about “Showing others”. We need to concentrate on our principles and what we truly stand for. In the words of Thomas Jefferson, “When it comes to style, swim with the tide; when it comes to principles, stand like a rock.”
I vote for Michael Steele; he is intelligent, thoughtful and, I think, real.
While I agree that Mr. Dawson may pose a PR problem in a world dominated by a media that looks for the “evil white dude” angle to every story, I was disappointed to see you dredge up the bogus “CD with a racial themed ‘joke’” issue levied against Mr. Saltsman. Any political reporter who doesn’t know by now that the “joke” was Paul Shanklin’s “Barak the ‘Magic Negro’” parody and that this was a satire of David Ehrenstein’s March 19, 2007 L.A. Times editorial of the exact same title and not a jab at either Obama or blacks in general is either wilfully ignorant, decidedly deceptive or woefully inept.
I’m inclined to agree with those advocating Michael Steele. He will be the most difficult for the MSM to demagogue. But anyone who is picked will be demagogue, we just don’t need to make it easy for Liberals to do it.
If we pick Dawson, every time he’s in the news the MSM will say, “RNC Chair Dawson, criticized for being a member of a white’s only country club said today:”
Can the folks who are arguing that Dawson’s “baggage” shouldn’t matter actually believe it won’t?
The black vote clearly made a difference in this Presidential election, the Hispanic vote will only become more important in the future. At the same time, however, if you look at voting distribution in Virginia and North Carolina it also becomes crystal clear that the primary divide is no longer red states vs. blue states. It is urban vs. ex-urban. The solid south is gone, and it’s not coming back. If we don’t change the current dynamics, we’ll all be Republicans in California soon.
Like it or not, the GOP desperately needs to expand demographically, if it hopes to win elections. That doesn’t mean that we have to kowtow to ethnic or racial groups In Democratic fashion. What we need to be able to do is persuade them that Republican principles will serve them better in the long run. The key question is who can most effectively make that sale?
Why on earth would you pick a point man who is going to have to fight the same old white-only battles before he can even begin to do that job? Even if you think it’s a bogus issue, the idea that the Democrats and the media won’t make it an issue is just willfully blind. All the resentment in the world isn’t going to change that fact. When you’ve got other perfectly capable alternatives, it seems politically suicidal to make the one choice that you’ll end up having to defend, when you could be promoting the party in new quarters instead.
I vote against Steele. The first time I heard his name mentioned, he came out the next day to give a speech about the whole Republican “country club atmosphere” bullsh*t and how he would change it all. What a load of crap.
Michigan Republican=Amway, no thanks.
A questionable past is fine for Democrats, but Republicans have higher ethical standards (primarily because of the press of course). We just don’t need the distraction of Dawson’s associations.
We liked Ken Blackwell when we were in OH. I had read his speeches and was excited about his candidacy before ever seeing his picture.
Don’t you guys understand? ONLY whites are capable of racism or other forms of evil. If non-whites commit any violent, hateful or bigoted acts, it is merely a justified backlash against white oppression!
Duncan – loser
Dawson – closet full of skeletons
Saltsman – foolish CD episode illustrates incompetence
That leaves:
Steele
Blackwell
Anuzis
Go with Blackwell or Steele for RNC Chair and make Anuzis the right-hand man CTO for the Chair.
This would put us on the track back to majority.
Clearly you’ve been asleep these last 8 years while the country club, Rockefeller republicans and neocons took the 1994 revolution, raped it, chopped it up and flushed its bloody pieces down the toilet.
Mike T,
I beg to differ on the origin of your point. The 1994 revolution was a throw everyone out that’s been in movement rather than a sudden rush to the RNC. You may recall a man by the name of Perot and a SEAL elected in Minn.
We need a real revolution again. Thomas Jefferson thought about every 20 years would be good, we are, dear Mike, a bit over due. No wonder we need to be disarmed.
#43 JM Hanes – You’re right… and you’re wrong. It doesn’t matter whom we pick. The MSM will slam whomever we do pick. We cannot lett them influence our choice.
This is the whole problem of the Pub Party – living in fear of the Media; letting them set the storyline. We must pick whomever we think can best do the job for us. We must stand by our principles and our decisions. We can’t run every time the media hounds bark. Doing that is how we got into this mess in the first place.
Jennifer,
Is it your viewpoint that no social organizations should be all white or all black? Is that one of the points you’re making? If it is, I can live with it. I think it’s about time.
Separately, do you think the Republican Party would receive more African American votes if it named an African American head of the Republican Party? I’m dubious about that.
It’s my belief that George Bush saved more black lives with his aids program in Africa than any other man, black or white in history. Does that count for nothing? Does the choice of the RNC chair have more to do with attracting black voters than saving hundreds of thousands of lives in Africa? I don’t think it should.
Historically, Republican blacks have been the recipients of hateful name-calling, like Powell and Rice have been called Uncle Toms by various black organizations when they were loyal Bush Secretary of States.
As much as I’m a fan of yours (and maybe I’m missing something like a good night’s sleep) but this article seems to be based on false premises.
Please tell me where my thinking jumped the track on this one.
Regards,Rachel
Too late: Michael Steele was just elected Chairman.
The discussion is over and done.
This is absolutely ridiculous. This country is just full of pansies. First palin to get the women. and now some black guy….to try to get the black vote. political correctness at its ugliest. Im sick of this ‘its cool to be black”, “its cool to be gay”. Whats wrong with being a white man. if this society was tolerant and indeed ‘race/gender etc blind’, we’d be picking the best qualified for the job, not just affirmitive auctioning them away
If you had any idea how badly Steele was treated for his values and how he stuck to them, you would understand why many people consider him to be the most reliable conservative candidate for cleaning house.
Watch out for the run on Oreo cookies and Chuck Shumer going through Mr. Steele’s trash.
#59 Marc Malone:
“It doesn’t matter whom we pick. The MSM will slam whomever we do pick. We cannot lett them influence our choice.”
If you’ve got a capable guy with one less slam for them to work with, why wouldn’t you pick him? Michael Steele doesn’t represent a compromise on principles. When a key part of what the RNC Chair needs to do involves public relations, ignoring the press is a complete non-starter. Almost nobody ever heard of Dawson, or Duncan for that matter, before, which pretty much tells you all you need to know.
Democrats, the historically racist party, by making a man they consider “black” their nominee for president have finally surrendered and accepted the Reconstruction that Republicans always championed.
I like Steele. But I don’t like the idea he might become some sort of GOP token in some people’s eyes. Or that the reasone the GOP might pick him simply because of his darker shade.
Derek said:
“Robert Byrd didn’t wait until 2004 to hang up his white hood though”
Am I understanding this right? You are actually attempting to equate whatever Dawson was a member in to the KKK??? Seriously?
Liberalism is truly a mental disorder..Here is proof.
Re-reading the headline on this piece reminded me of something: has anyone been checking over the last few years to be sure that black politicians have never belonged to a blacks only club or attended a blacks only university?
Probably not. It’s ok if blacks are racists.
I was eliminated from jury duty once because I labeled myself Italian-American. I guess my comments don’t count, either.