Giving the Voters What They Want, Deserve

The more Gus Savage is attacked, the more he likes it. He is not a masochist; he is a politician.

And he is confident he can continue to turn attacks into votes.

A black congressman from Chicago, Savage is one of Capitol Hill’s leading bigots and anti-Semites. He bashes homosexuals for good measure.

Many stories have been done on Savage recently. And reading them, you might get the impression that although he has been elected to five terms in Congress, Gus Savage is just plain nuts.

Michael Flannery, an award-winning reporter for WBBM-TV in Chicago, approached him in 1988 for a comment about an FBI investigation into whether his son was a no-show government employee. And Savage replied: “Are you still wearing your wife’s underwear?”

Then, when two other reporters joined the questioning, Savage asked one, “You still messing around with little boys?” and the other, “You know, we’re all very upset about what you’re doing with your wife’s sister.”

Savage did not make these remarks because he is nutty, however. And he was not being nutty when a few months ago he referred to a white photographer at one of his political rallies as “boy” and said, “I don’t want that little white racist taking my picture.”

Nuttiness has nothing to do with it. It is Savage’s ticket to success. Such attacks make him a hero with some voters. And those voters return him to office.

I called Flannery, who has been a friend of mine for about 15 years, and asked him what Savage is up to when he says such things to journalists.

“He wants us to hit him,” Flannery said. “He gets up real close to you and starts swearing.” Savage uses not only the F-word, but also the M-word, Flannery said. “Then he’ll say: ‘Get out of my way, white boy!’ He really wants a member of the white media to hit him and make him an even bigger hero. It would mean a lot of votes for him in future elections.”

Which is the method behind Savage’s seeming madness. He uses his bigotry to get votes. And he directs it not just against whites. He will attack blacks if they cross him. Years ago, Savage’s son was arrested in Washington for driving without a license or license plates, and Savage called the D.C. police chief, a black, “a racist.”

Anyone who crosses Savage for any reason is a racist. Which is why he recently called Ron Brown, who is chairman of the Democratic Party, and black, “Ron Beige.” Savage is big on being “blacker-than-thou.” It gets him votes. And more.

In many of the recent stories about Savage there have been brief references to what happened in Kinshasa, Zaire, on March 19, 1989. But the incident really deserves more than a brief mention, because it reveals the essential Gus Savage.

A 28-year-old Peace Corps volunteer, a black woman, had been invited to dinner at the U.S. ambassador’s home in honor of visiting Rep. Gus Savage. After the dinner, she agreed to accompany Savage and other dinner guests on a tour of the capital.

Savage insisted she ride alone with him in the back of a chauffeur-driven car. “As soon as the . . . cars pulled off from the ambassador’s residence, he grabbed me,” the woman later told Jim McGee of the Washington Post. “He tried to force me to have sex with him. He touched me against my will. . . . He forced my mouth, I mean he forced me to kiss him, physically forced me, pulled my mouth onto his, felt my body. . . . He was trying to lean over, get on me, lean over me in the car. He pulled on me, grabbed on me.”

The woman said she tried to make Savage stop, but he would not. The woman was finally escorted away from Savage by a fellow Peace Corps employee. But a week later she was medically evacuated to the United States, where she underwent six weeks of intensive therapy designed for victims of sexual assault.

But of all the things Savage is accused of doing to her that night, this may be the most disgusting:

“He told me I was a traitor to the black movement if I didn’t go along,” the woman said.

And that is what race truly is to Gus Savage. Race to him is not about dignity or heritage or pride. Race to him is a way to get a woman to have sex. Or something he can exploit for a vote.

U.S. Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), is a black man who has been beaten and jailed in defense of his race and in his fight for civil rights in this country. Gus Savage asked Lewis to campaign with him this year, to attend a rally where Savage made a number of anti-Semitic references.

Other black leaders went to that rally, but John Lewis refused. “I just didn’t want to be associated with that type of philosophy,” Lewis said. “I remember the three civil rights workers who were murdered in Mississippi, all friends of mine. Two were Jews, one was black. The Democrats as a party must speak out against this type of philosophy.”

But the Democrats, as a party, have not. The black leaders who attended the rally later disassociated themselves--with the greatest reluctance--from Savage’s remarks. A few white Democratic leaders have done the same.

Some blame the Democrats for gutlessness, and this is fair. And some blame the media for making too much of Savage, and this may be fair, too.

But nobody wants to blame the voters who keep reelecting Gus Savage.

We don’t want to blame them because to blame them would be to admit that democracy is not perfect, that it allows bad people to gain office for bad reasons.

But this does happen. And the majority of the voters in Savage’s district return him to office time after time. And I blame them.

I also say: Let them have each other. Let them have a man who huffs and puffs about race while reportedly mauling women in the back seats of cars. Let them have a man who is strong on bigoted attacks, but weak on passing legislation that would actually help the people of his district.

Anybody who votes for Gus Savage deserves Gus Savage. Your public servants, Adlai Stevenson once said, serve you right.