The cases of Representatives Maxine Waters and Charlie Rangel reveal the corruption that is almost inevitable when any politician is given a job for life and the scandalous lack of accountability in the Congressional Black Caucus.

Blacks are still largely lock-step Democratic voters and will probably remain so for a while. But when you listen to the likes of West and Clyburn, never mind silly white liberals like Garofalo, one cannot help but be reassured that the ground is shifting under their feet as inexorably as it shifted under the feet of racists more than a generation ago.

Tim Scott's victory over Paul Thurmond in the GOP primary in South Carolina's First Congressional District is welcome reinforcement that American race relations have changed since the days of Thurmond's father, staunch segregationist advocate Strom Thurmond.

In 2011, does black political inclusion really still depend on protecting black candidates from white competition in race-based districts?

It is a sad and dangerous moment for race relations in American politics.

No, it wasn't Obama's words but deeds that roused the beast. The poorly crafted, deeply partisan stimulus was like a sharp stick to the bear's belly. But it was "Obamacare" that ended the hibernation.

Four-term congressman Artur Davis was defeated in his bid to become the Democratic nominee for governor of Alabama, but his loss was the result of normal politics and no data suggest race was the decisive factor.

The political class should abandon its racism-is-still-everywhere picture and admit that tea partiers are ordinary Americans, representative of the population as a whole.