The Congressional Black Caucus, it seemed, turned out in Florence, South Carolina this morning to back the candidacy of candidate Wesley Clark. C-SPAN covered the event live.

Representative Bobby Rush praised the candidate’s Christianity, stating that Clark does more than just talk about Christianity; he has “Christian commitment.” This, he explains, means that Clark supports Affirmative Action.

Rush said that Clark had once opposed affirmative action until he saw what it was doing; Clark now supports it. So, Rush inexplicably asserted, “we need somebody [Clark] who won’t change his mind about Affirmative Action.”

Representative William Jefferson (D-Louisiana) showed up in Florence to campaign for Clark. He decided that the Dem nominee would be a southerner, not some Ivy League cracker like Kerry. (No, he did not use those exact words, but that was his message.) He said that Edwards was a nice kid and “is probably going to go somewhere some day,” but Clark is the grownup.

Representative Charlie Rangel (D-New York) spoke, and I am still not able to understand a word that man says.

The campaign’s main speaker was not the general, but his wife Petula Clark. (Her real given name is Gertrudge, but humor me…)

She’s a general’s wife, and she loves the Army. I don’t know if she were an actual, on-paper member of the Army, but her choice of pronouns gave away the fact that she felt she was a part of it. And as Clark’s wife, she was to that extent.

That being said, I like political wives, their roles. A candidate’s wife would have to be a singularly awful human being to earn by disdain. But I like Mrs. Clark.

I wonder if she could understand Rangel?