CRIMSON TIDE AT THE TIMES: In the Jayson Blair fallout, Mickey Kaus weighs the pros and cons of blaming the Blair Affair on affirmative action, or on editor Howell Raines and his tendency to promote those who suck up to him. Or both. Here's Mickey:
I remember getting a call from an aspiring young reporter I knew, asking for a xerox of an article Howell Raines had written about Alabama football. The reporter needed to read the article in order to suck up to Raines in a job interview. The reporter is now on the national staff of the Times.
Interesting that Raines is an Alabama guy. But what Kaus doesn't mention is that the second-biggest national racial brouhaha going on right now (after the Blair thing) is an effort by Jesse Jackson to challenge the recent hiring- by Alabama- of Mike Shula as football coach, replacing disgraced strip club-phile Mike Price. Jackson feels that a better candidate would've been Packers assistant Sylvester Croom (who is black), and has demanded a thorough investigation.
The last time Jesse Jackson interjected himself into a sports-related scandal in the South, you'll remember, was the Augusta National mess, and we all know how Raines reacted to that- and now it's going on in his home state. If he weren't held up with the prospect of losing his job, you've gotta think Howell would be jumping into the 'bama football story with both feet.