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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Poet who wrote (559299)	4/2/2004 5:56:07 PM
From: Bill	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 769667

When Harold Ford ran against Nancy Pelosi for minority leader, guess who the Dems chose. Has there ever been a Dem Secretary of State who was black? Has there ever been a Dem National Security Advisor who was black? At some point, you have to ask yourself why Democrats never appoint blacks to high positions, while Republicans always do.

To: Poet who wrote (559299)	4/7/2004 3:20:31 PM
From: Bill	Respond to of 769667

Does this? Sen. Dodd accused of making racist comment WASHINGTON, April 7 (UPI) -- A mini-scandal has erupted in Congress as some Senate Republicans question whether comments made by Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., were racist. In a speech on the Senate floor last Thursday marking Sen. Robert Byrd's 17,000th vote in the body, Dodd said the West Virginia Democrat, member of the Ku Klux Klan before taking office and opponent of the 1964 Civil Right Act, "would have been right during the great conflict of Civil War in this nation." Dodd's comments struck some as similar to remarks made by former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., that led to his losing the position. The comments were made as part of large praise of Byrd's great service as a Senator, which Dodd said, "would have been right at anytime." Lott claimed at a private party for former Sen. Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday that if Lott's 1948 segregationist presidential bid had succeeded, "We wouldn't have had all these problems over all these years." While some Republicans on Capitol Hill and conservative blacks pundits have ripped Dodd's comment -- in light of the Lott scandal -- Democratic leaders dismissed such comparisons. washingtontimes.com

To: Poet who wrote (559299)	4/7/2004 3:28:16 PM
From: Bill	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769667

And surely you recall this... Hillary Clinton 'truly regrets' Gandhi joke Remarks called stereotypical, racially insensitive Wednesday, January 7, 2004 Posted: 11:42 AM EST (1642 GMT) ST. LOUIS, Missouri (AP) -- Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton apologized for joking that Mahatma Gandhi used to run a gas station in St. Louis, saying it was "a lame attempt at humor." The New York Democrat made the remark at a fund-raiser Saturday. During an event here for Senate candidate Nancy Farmer, Clinton introduced a quote from Gandhi by saying, "He ran a gas station down in St. Louis." After laughter from many in the crowd of at least 200 subsided, the former first lady continued, "No, Mahatma Gandhi was a great leader of the 20th century." In a nod to Farmer's underdog status against Republican Sen. Kit Bond, Clinton quoted the Indian independence leader as saying: "First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win." The director of a U.S. center devoted to Gandhi's teachings called the remarks stereotypical and racially insensitive, while an educator said the flap underscored the need for politicians to be cautious when trying to get laughs. "Political speeches can't be like episodes of The Simpsons," said David Robertson, a University of Missouri-St. Louis political science professor. After being approached by The Associated Press to clarify the remarks, Clinton suggested in a statement sent late Monday that she never meant to fuel any stereotype -- often used as a comedic punch line -- that certain ethnic groups were synonymous with operating America's gas stations. "I have admired the work and life of Mahatma Gandhi and have spoken publicly about that many times," Clinton said in a two-sentence statement. "I truly regret if a lame attempt at humor suggested otherwise." So does Michelle Naef, administrator of the M.K. Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence, the Memphis, Tennessee-based nonprofit group founded in 1991 by a Gandhi grandson to promote his grandfather's teachings, including nonviolent resistance. While crediting Clinton and her husband, former President Clinton, as long having "supported the Gandhi message," Naef said Saturday's remarks "could be incredibly harmful" in perpetuating racial myths. "I don't think she was, in any way, trying to demean Mahatma Gandhi," Naef said. "To be generous to her, I would say it was a poor attempt at humor. Perhaps I'm overly sensitive, but I find it offensive when people use stereotypes in that way." To Robertson, the professor, the flap demonstrates the potential peril of when humor by politicians falls flat. "The more prominent the politician, the more they've taken positions on equality in the past as Mrs. Clinton has, the more this is going to be troubling to some people," he said. "It's understandable that groups want to make sure they're treated with complete respect." When it comes to Hillary Clinton, he said, "there's no reason to think she doesn't admire Gandhi, like so many people do. After all, Gandhi was influential to Martin Luther King Jr., and I know she respects King." cnn.com