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Politics : The Donkey's Inn -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Patricia Trinchero who wrote (3408)	3/25/2002 2:35:24 PM
From: Mr. Whist	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 15516

The big lie of GOP diversity. By J.R. Labbe Forth Worth Star-Telegram If your name starts with an X and ends with a vowel or a Z, the odds of getting elected to public office in Texas as a Republican are somewhere between slim and miraculous. Texas has come a long way - not always in the right direction - since the days when Lorenzo de Zavala served as the republic's first vice president. Xavier Rodriguez's defeat in Tuesday's Republican primary may have put a big fat lie to the GOP's supposed embrace of diversity, at least in the Lone Star State. A sitting Supreme Court justice - endorsed by virtually every major newspaper in the state and supported by none other than President George W. Bush hisself - was beat by a private practice attorney with the Wonder-Bread-and-mayonnaise name of Steven Wayne Smith. The names, in truth, should be beside the point. Unfortunately, for entirely too many voters, the name is the only information they have when it comes to deciding. In a state that elects its judges, precious few people take the time to research the candidates to determine what they stand for. They use insignificant qualifiers like name, gender or placement on the ballot. That's like letting your kid fill out your NCAA tournament bracket based on which team mascots she likes best. In that case, all you might lose is the five bucks it cost to get into the office pool. Elect an unqualified judge, or one who sees his role as an activist on the bench, and the consequences are potentially more dire. Smith's primary campaign literature outlined a judicial platform that included "standing up for the English language." In a March 11 news release, he said that Gov. Rick Perry and Attorney General John Cornyn aren't true conservatives because they are learning how to speak Spanish. What is that all about? It isn't as if Perry and Cornyn have said they want to elevate Spanish to the official language of the state. Gracious, they should be applauded for their efforts, particularly in a state in which the fastest-growing ethnic group - and potential new voters - is Hispanic. Bush understands the personal and political value of being bilingual, and of his party's need to welcome diversity. One wonders: Do Smith and those of like mind think that makes the president a moderate? During the 2000 Republican National Convention, the party's leadership and image shapers worked hard to portray Bush as a "different kind of Republican" who could appeal to voters "not typically aligned with the GOP." Translation: Black and Hispanic voters can find reasons to support this guy. Bush in fact may be different. His Cabinet and top-level advisers reflect a refreshing mix of gender, race and ethnicity. The rest of the party, however, trails behind in that enlightenment. The GOP's problem isn't just one of convincing minority voters to support its candidates, although that remains a huge hurdle that only got higher in Texas with the Democratic Party's "dream team" tricolor slate for November. Tony Sanchez for governor, Ron Kirk for U.S. Senate (OK, so that may be premature - his race with Victor Morales won't be finalized until the April 9 runoff, but the smart money is on the former mayor of Dallas and not the schoolteacher from Crandall) and John Sharp for lieutenant governor make a heavy-hitter lineup. No, the Republicans must do a better job of recruiting and supporting candidates with names like Gonzales and Garza and Rodriguez. Tuesday's Democratic primary underscored a hard truth in Texas: The Hispanic vote is essential. If the Republicans want to continue to win, the party must attract Hispanics voters and candidates, and that can't be done by ignoring them and/or voting against them. Rodriguez should not have been the Republican Party's Supreme Court nominee just because he's Hispanic. That would be as wrong-headed as not voting for him because of his ethnicity. Rodriguez should be the nominee because he was the best candidate in that race, who just happens to be Hispanic. Every time Election Day rolls around, newspaper pundits feel required to write the obligatory "go out there and do your civic duty" editorial in an attempt to nudge folks to the ballot box. Just once, it would be nice to see an editorial that says if you haven't taken the time to learn about the candidates, to know more about them than whether their surnames sound "foreign" or "American," stay home on Election Day. Jill "J.R." Labbe is a Star-Telegram senior editorial writer. dfw.com

To: Patricia Trinchero who wrote (3408)	3/25/2002 8:10:34 PM
From: Mephisto	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 15516

FBI raids pro-Republicans Duncan Campbell in Los Angeles Monday March 25, 2002 The Guardian The target of an anti-terrorist raid in the United States last week provided funds for an Islamic group with close ties to the Republican party and the White House. The Safa trust, a Saudi-backed charity, has provided funds for a political group called the Islamic Institute, which was set up to mobilise support for the Republican party. It shares an office in Washington with the Republican activist Grover Norquist. The institute, founded in 1999 to win influence in the Republican party, has helped to arrange meetings between senior Bush officials and Islamic leaders, according to the report in Newsweek magazine. Its s chairman, Khaled Saffuri, and Mr Norquist cooperated to arrange the meetings. The trust gave $20,000 (£14,000) to the institute, which also received $20,000 from a board member of the Success Foundation, according to the report. The institute has also received money from abroad, including$200,000 from Qatar and $55,000 from Kuwait. The institute says that none of the money came with strings attached. Mr Norquist, who is a member of the institute's board, said that it existed "to promote democracy and free markets. Any effort to imply guilt by association is incompetent McCarthyism". It is understood that a series of raids last week were prompted by the transfer of funds from the Safa trust and other groups to accounts based in the Isle of Man. They have not led to any charges. Islamic groups have complained that many of the raids being carried out on Islamic organisations are speculative and violate their civil liberties. In another development, the possibility that one of the September 11 hijackers had been exposed to anthrax has been explored by the FBI. A Florida doctor who treated Ahmed Ibrahim al-Haznawi for a leg wound last summer concluded that the likeliest cause of the injury was cutaneous anthrax. But the FBI said yesterday that it had found no evidence of a link between the hijackers and anthrax. guardian.co.uk