On my show 'he was ripped, called every name in the book and castigated. Why? Largely because he’s a black Republican.'

Roland S. Martin
CNN Political Contributor

If you ask someone who is white to tell you the political party of someone who is pro-life, against gay marriage, believes in a smaller government, is a fiscal conservative and is a consistent critic of the policies of President Barack Obama, chances are they’ll say he’s a Republican.

If you ask someone who’s black and throw in that the individual you’re describing is also an African-American, chances are he’ll be called an Uncle Tom or a sellout.

Welcome to the world of Michael Steele and of other black Republicans.

When I told folks on Facebook and Twitter that I was interviewing Steele last week for my show on TV One Cable Network, “Washington Watch With Roland Martin,” the comments were not surprising. He was ripped, called every name in the book and castigated. Why? Largely because he’s a black Republican.

Yes, African-Americans are loyal to President Barack Obama and fiercely protective of him. Heck, when legendary radio show host Tom Joyner made some comments recently on his show that were perceived as critical of the president, folks called him an Uncle Tom. And Joyner was one of Obama’s biggest supporters doing the campaign!

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Dick Cheney served as the 46th Vice President of the United States from 2001 to 2009 in the administration of George W. Bush.

Roland S. Martin
CNN

Mr. President, please take my advice: never listen to the nutty advice of former Vice President Dick Cheney.

Trust me, he gave enough dumb advice to President George W. Bush during the last eight years that it's best that he just keep quiet on anything dealing with Iraq and Afghanistan.

Instead of recognizing that his constant pushing for war in Iraq, which had nothing to do with the tragic events on 9/11, has put American in a tenuous position with the rest of the world, including our allies, Dick "I Took Five Deferments So I Wouldn't Have to Serve in Vietnam" Cheney wants to send more of our men and women into Afghanistan with absolutely no clue as to what the game plan is.

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Roland S. Martin
CNN Contributor

Rush Limbaugh stood a better chance of suiting up in an NFL game before he would ever step foot in an owners suite as a limited partner in any ownership group.

We can sit here and say that the decision by the partnership trying to pursue the St. Louis Rams decided to put Rush out to pasture because of his hateful words against African Americans and so many others over the years he has been on the radio, but the reality is that the National Football League is the biggest and baddest of all sports leagues, and they were not going to allow anyone – including the guy who just signed a $400 million contract – to mess with their money.

There is nothing that the NFL doesn’t sell to sponsors. Whether stadium naming rights, billboards, suites, and official sponsors of any and everything, corporate America is as much a part of the NFL as the players. And we all know that corporate America likes things squeaky clean, and if anyone gets in the way of the brand, they are removed from the scene. Quickly.

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Roland S. Martin says health care reform may fall victim to disunity among Democrats.

By Roland S. Martin
CNN contributor

Editor's note: A nationally syndicated columnist, Roland S. Martin is the author of "Listening to the Spirit Within: 50 Perspectives on Faith" and "Speak, Brother! A Black Man's View of America." Visit his Web site for more information.

Democratic members of Congress, party strategists, and even President Obama have tried their best to portray Republicans as obstructionists to health care reform, and want us to believe that if the effort fails, it's all because of the GOP.

That's bull. The failure to pass health care reform would be a yoke around the Democrats' neck, and the cause of losing the moment would be their inability to achieve unity among themselves.

Democrats have the perfect political hat trick. They control the White House, the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House, with a strong majority in both houses.

But I'm reminded of something Rep. John Conyers, D-Michigan, told me nine years ago: Democrats know nothing about party unity.

Conyers was being interviewed for an election special I was working on for a now-defunct black cable network, and he said that if Democrats had a majority of the votes in the House, they had a unified group of only about 165.

That's because when you throw in the 50-something Blue Dog Democrats - strongly conservative members whom some party loyalists liken to Republicans in Democrat clothing - then you have a different kind of dynamic than you do in the GOP, where the strong base of conservatives typically stays in line.

Then, of course, you have the far-left members, loud and noisy, and oftentimes unwilling to compromise their positions in order to move legislation forward.

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Former President Clinton receives flowers from a girl Tuesday upon landing in Pyongyang, North Korea.

Roland S. Martin
CNN Contributor

Much has been made of the involvement of former President Bill Clinton in the freeing of two Current TV journalists held in North Korea and facing 12 years of hard labor.

But considering that American taxpayers continue to pay for their office space, security detail and other perks of the office of a former president, why not put Jimmy Carter, George H.W. Bush, Clinton and George W. Bush to work for the good of the country?

There seems to be a tradition in this country of former presidents spending their time giving speeches, raising money for their presidential libraries, writing their memoirs and staying out of the way of the current occupant of the White House.

I get that. You had your shot and you want the new person to have their day in the sun and do it that way. Yet letting that experience and solid relationships go to waste makes no sense to me.

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Roland S. Martin
CNN Contributor

Five days after the 2008 presidential election, Steve Kroft of "60 Minutes" did a profile on "Obama's brain trust," four political veterans that he reported were the president-elect's most important team members: David Plouffe, Robert Gibbs, David Axelrod and Anita Dunn.

When the report aired, I immediately asked myself, "Where's Valerie?" - as in Valerie Jarrett, clearly the most important adviser to the president.

After calling around, I discovered that Jarrett didn't even know about the sit-down interview. As Arsenio Hall used to say on his show, "Things that make you go, 'Hmmm.' "

But after reading the New York Times Magazine cover story on the 52-year-old Jarrett, a longtime Chicago, Illinois, business executive, it's safe to say that that mistake will never happen again.

Washington is all about power and the approximation to power. Who is in and who is out is the favorite parlor game among the elites, and the wide assumption by many was that when it came to whom the president relied on the most for advice and counsel, it would have been chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, senior adviser Axelrod and press secretary Robert Gibbs.

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As soon as then-Sen. Obama entered the presidential race, 'he has had to endure the so-called flag-waving American patriots who think they are the arbiters of what's right for the country,' Martin writes.

Roland S. Martin
CNN Contributor

The YouTube video of an out-of-control woman yelling and screaming at Republican Congressman Mike Castle's town hall meeting in Delaware, demanding to see the birth certificate of President Barack Obama, is utterly hilarious.

To watch others cheer her insanity, and then boo the congressman who says the president is an American, shows you that we have a serious problem with mental illness in this country.

The nut jobs that continue to promote this story are wacky, right-wing radio and TV talk shows hosts and no-credibility bloggers. They have latched onto this story like bloodsucking leeches, and actually want us to believe this story has legs.

Last week, in a suit filed by perennial presidential loser, Alan Keyes, they even tried to claim a court victory after a federal district judge in California asked to listen to the merits of their case. I'm sure he simply wanted to see for himself how delusional they are.

From the moment President Obama entered the race, he has had to endure the so-called flag-waving American patriots who think they are the arbiters of what's right for the country. What cracks me up is that in order to justify their loony beliefs, they say, "The president could just end this once and for all by producing the birth certificate."

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Roland S. Martin
CNN Contributor

Critics of President Obama, mostly Republicans, have seethed that he has not been more forceful in ripping the theocratic leadership in Iran for their brutal handling of protesters angry with what they see as a stolen election.

In Tuesday's press conference, the president toughened his talk, saying, "The United States and the international community have been appalled and outraged by the threats, beatings and imprisonments of the last few days."

Still, Obama's measured and calm approach has been right on target, while his critics have been totally off base.

What these shortsighted naysayers should do is pick up a history book, or take a quick trip to Langley, Virginia, and let the CIA tell them our own sordid past with Iran.

Whenever U.S. relations with Iran are raised, everyone seems to want to refer back to 1979, when our embassy was overrun by militants and Americans were taken hostage for 444 days. The nation, and the world, was captivated by the drama, and many consider the affair the chief reason why President Carter lost to Ronald Reagan in the 1980 presidential election.

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Bonds arrives for a court hearing in San Francisco - the city where he made his name as a sporting hero.

Roland S. Martin
CNN Contributor

I loved baseball as a kid. I still have fond memories of my siblings and me, members of the "Astro Buddies" club, heading to the Astrodome, the eighth wonder of the world, to watch the Houston Astros play.

I played the game in elementary and high school.

But now, I'm sick of it, especially when steroids are brought up.

The latest baseball drama surrounds a New York Times report quoting two lawyers who say that former Chicago Cubs slugger Sammy Sosa's name was on a list of players who tested positive for an illegal substance in 2003. The list supposedly contains more than 100 names of players who tested positive that year.

This report comes on the heels of Alex Rodriguez of the New York Yankees admitting that he used performance-enhancing drugs a few years ago; Manny Rodriguez testing positive and suspended for 50 games; and the continuing drama surrounding Roger Clemens. All three were considered locks for the Hall of Fame. But based on what we keep hearing, that'll never happen in this holier-than-thou era.

OK, got it. Baseball had a terrible drug problem. Now they have a drug testing plan in place that has some teeth in it. So, can we just move the hell on?

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Michael Vick, left, arrives at federal court with attorney Billy Martin in Richmond, Viriginia, in 2007.

Roland S. Martin
CNN Contributor

When Michael Vick completes home confinement in July, he will have served the 23-month prison sentence imposed after he pleaded guilty to federal dogfighting charges.

After his release from a Kansas prison Wednesday, he headed to his home in Virginia to serve the final two months under home confinement, because all the beds at halfway houses in the area are taken.

But that hasn't deterred the Vick haters who are still in an uproar over the heinous details of his dogfighting kennel. Yes, reading the details of the treatment of the dogs, including the killing of some of them, could make anyone sick. Yet what's the point of sentencing someone to jail, then having them serve their time and be released if we still want to imprison them for the rest of their lives?

Frankly, I'm sick of Americans who talk all day about "do the crime, then do the time," then still want to treat a man like a criminal when he gets out of prison.

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Roland S. Martin
CNN Contributor

"I'll kill all y'all."

Imagine looking at the man whose DNA you carry standing in your home, telling you those chilling words, as he wields a shotgun.

The frightening image is a scary thought. But according to former Major League Baseball star Darryl Strawberry, it was an actual scene, one that begins his book, "Straw: Finding My Way."

I vividly remember the towering home runs hit by the former star, who played for four big league teams, including the New York Mets and Yankees - and of course, the many times he was in the news for failing drug tests, beating wives, getting cancer twice, going to prison. He was a man fighting enormous demons.

Yet as I read the book, there is one consistent theme that runs throughout and that sheds a spotlight on a figure that continues to plague neighborhoods all across the country: the missing-in-action father.

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Miss California commented on the same-sex marriage debate during Sunday's Miss USA pageant.

Roland S. Martin
CNN Contributor

A lot of folks are always saying they like to keep it real, that they want authenticity and straight talk. Yet when someone actually does it, there is hell to pay.

Welcome to the world of Miss California, Carrie Prejean, who, since she answered a question regarding same-sex marriage in Sunday's Miss USA pageant, has been savagely attacked by those who oppose what she had to say.

Leading the burn-her-at-the-stake parade is media opportunist Perez Hilton, the self-described gossip queen, and the individual who kick-started this controversy by asking the initial question as to whether the issue of same-sex marriage should be left up to the states.

It seems that Hilton, who is gay, was none too pleased that Prejean chose to actually give her personal opinion on the issue, and ripped her on his blog after the show, using crude obscenities as he continued to attack her at every turn on his media blitz.

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The changes in Cuban policy was unveiled before President Obama's trip to the Summit of the Americas.

Roland S. Martin
CNN Contributor

It is amazing to watch politicians and activists try as hard as they can to rip into Fidel Castro and Cuba with the fury of a hurricane, yet sound like a whimpering dog when you bring up China and America's absolute double standard when dealing with that communist country.

When President Obama lifted travel restrictions on the country for Cuban-Americans this week, and eased rules on allowing money and gifts to be sent back to the country, the ardent Castro haters were up in arms, calling it a horrible decision.

They want to see the 47-year-old embargo continue against the island, just 90 miles off the Florida coast, while a growing chorus of Democrats and Republicans say it hasn't worked, hasn't driven the Castro regime from power, and should be ended as we seek other means to get Cuba to move toward democracy.

Those who still favor the embargo - which has survived due to the clout of the Cuban-American community in the politically potent state of Florida - say that we shouldn't bend to a communist nation that imprisons voices of dissent and is a major human rights violator, doesn't allow the freedoms we are accustomed to in America, and is run by a dictator.

That's how they describe Cuba, but if you ask the Dalai Lama, he'll say that description fits China as well. But our politicians, and even media commentators on the left and the right, aren't willing to be as vicious in ripping China.

Remember when Castro was reported near death and some Americans talked openly about celebrating his death? I've never heard such talk related to China.

There is a double standard here, and it simply points to the difference between a small island country in our own hemisphere and a behemoth with a large military, possessor of nuclear weapons, a major player on the international scene, and, oh yeah, the holder of $500 billion in U.S. debt.

In other words, China has got us by the you-know-what, and we don't want to do anything to make it mad. In seeking to persuade Congress to grant China most-favored-nation status, which is all about trade between the two countries, Clinton administration officials, under the heading of "Engagement Works," told Congress in 1998, "Our strategy has been to engage China by working to identify areas on which we agree while continuing to forthrightly confront issues on which we do not."

On describing the instances where U.S. pressure regarding human rights resulted in the release of a couple of political prisoners, Congress was told, "These are not meant to be exhaustive examples of the fruits of engagement; nor are they meant to mask the persistence of serious differences between our two countries. They are intended simply to show that engagement is working and that we have made progress in encouraging China's development as a full and responsible member of the international community."

In essence, engagement works, as opposed to trying to shut someone off from the rest of the world.

So much about how we confront our relations with Cuba means admitting what we have never liked to admit: that we have been angered by the Cubans' refusal to bow to the wishes of the United States, which goes back even further than Fidel Castro rising to power 50 years ago.

In his book "Overthrow: America's Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq," Stephen Kinzer writes that after the U.S. helped Cuba run Spain out of the country in 1898, President Theodore Roosevelt got the bright idea that we should be the country's new ruler, which led to a battle between the Cuban people, resulting in U.S. troops occupying the country and American business interests controlling nearly all of the economic bright spots in the nation, especially the sugar plantations.

How did that change? When, Kinzer says, Castro gave a speech, saying, "This time I promise you it will not be like 1898 again, when the Americans came in and made themselves masters of our country." And they haven't stopped resisting.

America cannot, and should not, waver in its desire to seek democracy in our own hemisphere and around the world. But our actions must be fair and consistent.

Treating China as a partner, and Cuba as a pariah, only validates our critics who say that our hypocrisy knows no bounds. And in this case, they are spot on.

Program Note: For more on the Madonna adoption controversy, tune in to AC360° at 10 p.m. ET.

Madonna holds her adopted Malawian son, David Banda, in 2007.

Roland S. Martin
CNN Contributor

Pop star Madonna is back in the news; this time, heading back to the African nation of Malawi to adopt her second child.

You might remember all of the drama a few years ago when Madonna adopted a Malawi boy. Now she wants to adopt a girl, and a judge has said she will have to wait until Friday to see if she will get the go-ahead.

Madonna has been quoted in the Malawi newspaper Nation as saying, "Many people, especially our Malawian friends, say that David should have a Malawian brother or sister. It's something I have been considering, but would only do if I had the support of the Malawian people and government."

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Roland S. Martin
CNN Contributor

When President Obama signs the $410 billion omnibus spending bill, there will be shouts of joy from both sides as Republicans and Democrats get their cherished earmarks.

Yet tucked into that bill is an amendment pushed by the president's former colleague in the Senate, Illinois Democrat Dick Durbin, who used his influence to essentially kill the District of Columbia school vouchers program.

Oh sure, it will be portrayed that the Democrats aren't killing the program, but the initiative calls for no new students to be allowed entry, unless approved by Congress and the District of Columbia City Council.

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Editor's note: A nationally syndicated columnist, Roland S. Martin is the author of "Listening to the Spirit Within: 50 Perspectives on Faith" and "Speak, Brother! A Black Man's View of America." Visit his Web site for more information.

CNN
Roland S. Martin

Whenever the opposing coach playing Texas A&M University would go off on the referees, our yell leaders - we don't have cheerleaders - would signal the crowd to do one of our yells that ends with, "Sit down bus driver!"

As I watched Sen. John McCain stand up and go on one of his rants about earmarks, I wanted to shout, "Sit down bus driver!"

Look, I like Sen. McCain, and to be honest, I agree with him 100 percent that Congress shouldn't be spending billions of dollars on pet projects, but I'm also realistic: no one truly cares.

Really, no one cares. Sure, there are a few folks in Congress who rail against earmarks. And there are outside pressure groups who are trying to rally the American people to voice their outrage about the process, but I firmly believe that the folks at home love to send their members of Congress to bring the bacon back home.

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Anderson talks with his panel about Rush Limbaugh's speech at CPAC and suggestions that he is now the leader of the GOP.

Roland S. Martin
Special to CNN

Every day, parents and teachers across this country tell young people to dream big, not sell themselves short and prepare to go further and higher than the previous generation.

Corporations spend a lot of time, energy and money trying to get employees to get out of their comfort zone and think out of the box.

So can someone explain to me why it's a bad thing when the president of the United States does it?

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Roland S. Martin
CNN Contributor

President Obama earned kudos from the media when he said he screwed up in nominating Tom Daschle as secretary of Health and Human Services despite his problem with paying taxes.

Too bad the leadership of the New York Post didn't follow the lead of the president in admitting that an editorial cartoon they ran today by Sean Delonas was offensive, careless and racist.

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Roland Martin
CNN Contributor

With retailers hurting and the U.S. president trying to encourage Americans to spend money to restore consumer confidence, what I'm about to say may seem like treason. But here goes: Please boycott Valentine's Day and all that is associated with this horrendous "holiday."

For several years I have ripped into Valentine's Day. Not because I'm against love and relationships, but mainly because the holiday is such a farce.

First of all, Valentine's Day is not built around a religious event like Christmas or Easter; nor does it have any special meaning to the nation such as Memorial Day or Veterans Day.

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