Milwaukee Sheriff Clarke comes out as a Republican

For months, Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke (right) has flirted with the Republican Party. Now it looks like he has finally taken the leap.

Three months ago, he wrote a treatise entitled, "How One Becomes A Republican," but carefully avoided saying that he had become one himself. We asked then,"So Sheriff Clarke, Just What Are You Today?" No answer.

Before that, he had complained that the Democratic Party hadn't welcomed him as its new Zell Miller, although he had never taken any step to join the party or support its principles. He even played the race card. Maybe the Democrats didn't welcome him because he's a black conservative, he said. We politely disagreed, saying "David Clarke is No Zell Miller, But It's Not Because He's Black."

Clarke's hesitation to make it official is that he ran and was elected sheriff as a Democrat in 2002, and will be up for reelection in 2006. Milwaukee County is heavily Democratic; Republicans field only token candidates for partisan county offices in most cases.

So he wants to keep his options open.

It's surprising, then, that he has answered his own question about how one becomes a Republican.

One way would be to join the National Black Republican Association, a new group that proudly lists Sheriff Clarke on its website as one of its members. What's the group, just formed last month, all about? UPDATE: Clarke's name mysteriously disappeared from the website after this was posted, but here's the original page.

The mission of the National Black Republican Association (NBRA) is to be a resource for the black community on Republican ideals and to support the principles of the Republican Party. The NBRA aims to increase the number of black Americans who vote for Republicans, and are active in the Republican Party, by providing information, networking opportunities and resources for black Republicans nationwide.

The National Black Republican Federation, the NBRA’s affiliated Section 527 organization, will identify prospective black Republican candidates for elected office and provide those candidates with financial and grassroots assistance.

If Clarke's going to run for reelection as a Republican, he's going to need all the help that 527 can offer.

The website displays prominent black Republicans, living and dead, including many you would expect and at least one -- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. -- that you wouldn't. Dr. King would no doubt be quite surprised to find himself pictured. The site says he registered as a Republican in 1956. That could be true (or not), but if it is that would have been a temporary abberation. By 1964, he said he "had no alternative but to urge every Negro and white person of goodwill to vote against Goldwater and to withdraw support from any Republican candidate that did not publicly disassociate himself from Senator Goldwater and his philosophy."

That certainly doesn't put him in the same league as Clarence Thomas, who's also pictured.

David Clarke, on the other hand, will fit right in.