Past and present African-American senators call for end to partisan politics

Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) and former Sen. Mo Cowan (D-Mass.) appear on “The Daily Rundown with Chuck Todd” Feb. 25, 2014. (via screengrab)

With partisan gridlock casting a shadow on the United States Congress’ upper chamber, a panel of African-American senators both past and present called for an end to the standstill at a Tuesday event marking Black History Month. And they looked to Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) to silence the partisan bickering in hopes of reform.

Scott hosted and Senate Chaplain Barry Black moderated a panel featuring Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and former Sens. Carol Moseley Braun (D-Ill.), Roland Burris (D-Ill.) and William “Mo” Cowan (D-Mass.) at the Library of Congress for an event called “Honoring Our Past, Celebrating Our Future: Discussing Personal Journeys and a Nation’s Progress with America’s Black Senators.” Kicking off the event with a “nonpartisan ‘Amen,’” the group of accomplished senators and trailblazers discussed the crucial need for young Americans to challenge themselves and their boundaries to achieve success. But among the jokes, ribbing between colleagues, and anecdotes, the trio of former senators called on their successors, specifically Scott, to put aside party politics and work to find common ground.

“These issues that we face are critical to the world and to have the kind of gridlock and stand-off and partisanship that I’ve seen as an observer from the outside just does a great disservice to our country,” Braun, who served as Ambassador to New Zealand until 2001, said. “And I don’t know who needs to start the conversation or whether we need to just wrap it up. But the fact of the matter is that this kind of partisanship that we’ve seen does a disservice to the legacy of the Senate, to the importance of the institution and to our whole country.”

The 113th Congress is the first to include two African-American senators — Booker and Scott — serving simultaneously. Yet despite the progress their presence represents, the upper and lower chambers’ label as the “the do-nothing Congress” has overshadowed the merits of its members.

And while Booker and Scott disagree on policy issues such as Obamacare, the minimum wage and immigration reform, the senators and their predecessors agreed that compromise was needed to move the country forward.

“One of the reasons why I wanted to bring us together was so we can share with the world … that all things are absolutely, positively, unequivocally possible in the United States of America,” Scott said.

The South Carolina senator, who was appointed by Gov. Nikki Haley in 2012, was the only Republican on the panel. Flanked by a duo of Democrats on either side, Scott said a life of public service is not met without challenges.

“I think it’s difficult being a member of the Senate sometimes,” Scott said. “We seem to have made it more difficult than it should be.”

But speaking to journalists after the event, the South Carolina Republican said he and Booker have plans to cross the partisan divide and tackle education, sentencing guidelines and tax reform in the near future.

The panel agreed that it would take the leadership of Scott and Booker to guide Congress to serve the American people well.

“George Washington, in his farewell address, pointed to the danger of what he called factions. And, quite frankly, I think that’s a lot of what we’re looking at now: Factions. Because to say one’s a Democrat, one’s  Republican, almost doesn’t describe anything anymore. What kind of Republican? What kind of Democrat? Where are you from?” Braun said. “All of these things have us breaking down into little pods of people. And those little pods may serve their own interest, but they do not serve the interest of the American people.”

Cowan, who left the Senate in 2013, noted that while the Senate has its flaws and partisan bickering, the body’s problems can still be fixed by those who are elected to serve in it.

“When I left the floor of the Senate, I said that there was nothing wrong with the Senate that can’t be fixed by what’s right with the Senate … the people in the body are fully empowered to make the Senate and the Congress at large work as effectively as the American people need it to be, as long and only if they’re willing to do so,” he said.

Red Alert Politics

Past and present African-American senators call for end to partisan politics