NAACP Chairman Rips Bush Record on Race
Choices of Norton, Ashcroft Assailed
Associated Press
Monday, July 9, 2001; Page A02
NEW ORLEANS, July 8 -- NAACP board chairman Julian Bond had harsh words tonight for President Bush's record in his first months in office, criticizing some of Bush's Cabinet choices and denouncing his faith-based initiative.
Bush has "appeased the wretched appetites of the extreme right wing, and he picked Cabinet officials whose devotion to the Confederacy is nearly canine in its uncritical affection," Bond said.
About 4,500 gathered to hear Bond's speech at the group's 92nd annual convention, applauding and occasionally laughing at some of his criticisms of Bush. Bush was invited to address the gathering, which will run through Thursday, but cited a scheduling conflict, NAACP officials said. Instead, he sent a videotaped greeting that will be played during the convention.
Bond especially assailed the civil rights records of Interior Secretary Gale A. Norton, a former Colorado attorney general, and Attorney General John D. Ashcroft.
"The president who promised to unite, not divide, chose as a secretary of the interior a woman who opposed racially equitable scholarships. . . . She refused to defend her state's support of a business fairness program," Bond said in his prepared text.
As for Ashcroft, the nation's top law enforcement officer, Bond said Bush chose "a man who doesn't believe in many of the civil rights laws he has sworn to enforce -- affirmative action, racial profiling, hate crimes, voting rights . . ."
An administration representative defended the president's choices.
"The president's Cabinet and staff are made up of accomplished and diverse individuals" including Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, Education Secretary Roderick R. Paige, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice and Deputy Attorney General Larry Thompson, Bush spokesman Jimmy Orr said.
The administration's tax cut and its faith-based initiative, which would allow government funds to flow to churches, mosques and synagogues that seek to ease social woes, were also targets of criticism.
Bush has asserted that church-based groups receiving government funds should be able to refuse employment to people outside their religion. Critics, including Bond, contend that this could amount to government-funded discrimination. |
