for
BLACKS
...www.bushwatch.com
for
BLACKS
...www.bushwatch.com
Lott, Bush, The McCain Smear, 2004. Karl Rove came back to his West Wing office after yet another fruitless meeting on the topic of "How to pry the Senate gavel from Trent Lott's cold, dead hands while pretending to be mildly supportive," to find his desk occupied.
"You are on the horns of a strategic dilemma, ol' man. You gotta bail out on Trent while giving the impression to our base in the South that you're not bailin'. You don't want to say anything that will get the seggies mad and you don't want to do anything that will remind the editorial writers about all the stuff you did for the seggies during the South Carolina primary: sending Junior to Bob Jones University; fuzzin' up Junior's position on the Confederate flag and attacking McCain's position as not supportive enough; having Junior cuddle up to Big Daddy Strom; winkin' when Republicans unrelated to the campaign — maybe even the same "unknown" parties who ran the Willie Horton ad in '88 — smeared McCain for having a black daughter....But we'll be able to use the code again. Junior just helped get Sonny Perdue elected governor of Georgia, callin' Sonny "a down-to-earth fellow." And ol' Sonny's main issue was restoring the Confederate flag. In 2004, Junior's gonna need all Sonny's confederate flag voters....We go by `Godfather' rules: This is business, not personal.--Maureen Dowd, NYT, 12.18.02
"Like Reagan..., Bush is smart enough to sprinkle just enough pepper in his white sauce, such as photo-ops with black children, to keep the hounds at bay." --Derrick Z. Jackson
"Last week...George W. Bush earned his master's degree from the Ronald Reagan Institute of Race Policy and Management," writes the Boston Globe's Derrick Z. Jackson. Reagan began his 1980 presidential campaign at the fair grounds in Philadelphia, Miss., telling the crowd, ''I believe in states' rights.'' Jackson: "Anyone who knows Southern race policy knows that saying ''states' rights'' is like waving a Confederate flag, telling racists they can do whatever they want to black folks....[Reagan's] presidency quickly became the most antipoor, antiblack, and antidisadvantaged in the latter half of the 20th century."
"Now, 20 years later, here comes George W. Bush. Stung by his defeat in the New Hampshire primary, Bush needed a trump card in the South Carolina Republican primary. This was a problem, since he and John McCain are running neck-and-redneck on issues dear to racists. Both have chickened out on saying it is time to stop flying the Confederate flag over the state capitol." As Bush watchers know, Bob Jones University bans interracial dating, but Bush decided to play to its racist population. "George W. took delight in validating this perverted version of Christianity, telling 6,000 students, almost all white, 'I look forward to publicly defending our conservative philosophy.'"
Bush "said he would seek 'compassionate results.' His compassion is irrelevant when out of all the colleges in South Carolina, he chose the most racist and homophobic, a venue more discriminatory on paper than even [Reagan's fairgrounds]. Speaking of papers, Bush's appearance was so outrageous newspaper and television reporters should hound him as to how he deserves the White House when he panders to such base thinking....By going to Bob Jones, Bush showed that he will be so compassionate to conservatives he will be every bit as antipoor, antiblack, and antidisadvantaged as Reagan was." --2/9/00
Racist News of the Day. More about Bob Jones University, where George W. Bush gave his "I am a conservative" speech this week. In the '80's Bob Jones Jr. said that "all the Popes are demon-possessed" and "the greatest danger we face today" is Pope John Paul II. In fact, he said, "the papacy is the religion of antichrist and is a satanic system." NYT columnist Bob Herbert was told by a Bob Jones spokesman that those statements have never been repudiated. "The University takes a very strong stand that Protestantism is the correct interpretation of Scripture." As for its present-day interracial dating ban, "there is a held belief from way back in the institution that that was biblically wrong." Herbert concludes, "For many years the Republican Party has been a haven for...racist elements in the society. Many of its candidates have pandered to those elements." With friends like that, George, you don't need enemies.--Politex, 2/10/00
Did Bush Know About Bob Jones' Racist Policies? Towards the end of the South Carolina campaign, reports had George W. Bush saying he did not know about Bob Jones University's racist policies until sometime after he went there and gave his speech. That would make Bush the only candidate not aware of the school's racist policies, an unlinkely event, particularly since Bob Jones' president trashed his father in highly-publicized statements not many years ago and we are often reminded of Junior's obsessive loyality to his family. Since Dubya is now willing to say he is against such policies, the implication is that he would not have gone to Bob Jones or, at the very least, he would have said something negative about the policies if he had known. Yet, last Wednesday the AP's Ron Fournier reported that Bush knew about these policies in advance of his speech. In fact, he was warned about the consequences of giving a speech at racist Bob Jones and he went anyway. Fournier: "He visited Bob Jones University, a hotbed of South Carolina conservatism. Some advisers urged him not to go, fearing the institution's segregationist history would become a general election campaign issue – along with other recent efforts to tack to the right." Bush's response through spokesperson Mindy Tucker implied votes were more important than both family loyalty and anti-racist principles: ""From our point of view, this is a place where there are a lot of South Carolina conservative voters." If Bush were to disavow advance knowledge of Bob Jones' racist policies in less conservative states, let's hope that he'll be reminded of Fournier's AP report in order to set the record straight. --Politex, 2/20/00
ON BUSH'S ADDRESS TO THE NAACP..."W.'s conservative friends seem to understand that he's got to talk a lot of mush, strained apricots and mashed bananas because baby food is all that the red-blooded American voter, distracted by demands of belly and telly, can tolerate this year....W. no doubt figures that the trashing of American history [by pretending to agree with the NAACP on issues of race] is an egghead issue that sails above the heads of many conservatives, who count taxes, abortion, vouchers, defense and keeping the electric chair hot as the issues dearest to their hearts." --Wesley Pruden, Editor-in-Chief, Washington Times, 7/11/00 (more)
BUSH TO NAACP: "Give me the chance to tell you what is on my heart."...[Sic] According to the AP, little of relevance was found in that organ..."Bush didn't announce any initiatives to address racism, but instead talked about his plans to improve education...NAACP President Kweisi Mfume said Bush must better define 'compassionate conservatism' and develop a plan to help end racial disparities in income, health, education and other areas." 7/10 (more)(text)(photo)
A COLLECTION OF BUSH LIES
Bush's talk about reaching out to black voters was nothing more than a collection of lies. That was clear when Bush refused to do any interviews with the African American news media during the campaign, and this incommunicado policy with the black press is still in effect to this day. A dozen years ago, in the first year of his father's administration, Bush's father did a one-on-one interview with Ed Gordon of Black Entertainment Television News. In April of 2000 and in May of this year, Jeb Bush appeared on Black Entertainment Television News' Sunday Morning Discussion Program, Lead Story. Yet DUH-bya would not avail himself to any black media, a charge not addressed by any member of the GOP, and a question that has been dodged by black Republicans. Here are the examples of the refusals:
1. Black Entertainment Television News extended an open invitation to both Bush and Gore to appear on their network for a one-on-one interview. Gore accepted not just one interview, but two interviews with B.E.T., both with then BET Tonight host Tavis Smiley, now with ABC and NPR. Bush refused repeated requests for a one-on-one interview with B.E.T. during the election, and continues that refusal to this day. Black Republicans have chosen to duck this question or to deny that Bush refused the invitations, and white Republicans either deny it or defend the decision by charging that BET is a biased liberal network that would have trashed Bush unfairly. If that's true, then why did Jeb Bush, former RNC Chair Jim Nicholson and current RNC Chair Jim Gilmore, along with many black Republicans, come on B.E.T. News, B.E.T. Tonight, and B.E.T.'s Lead Story, if the network is so biased against Bush and the Republicans? Smiley himself said that he and others on B.E.T. repeatedly asked Bush to come on their news programs, and the answer was always NO.
2. Tom Joyner, a popular African American radio talk show host of The Tom Joyner Morning Show, also extended invitations to Bush and Gore to appear on his show and take questions from listeners. Gore accepted the invitation and took questions from black listeners. Bush refused to appear on the show, not giving any reason that we know of for the refusal. On a related matter, Gore accepted an invitiation to appeae on Chicago's leading African American radio station WVON AM-1450 and took questions from listeners, while Bush refused an invitation from the station. Clifford Kelly, one of the station's radio hosts, pointed this fact out a week before the election on CNN's Talkback Live during a debate with his right wing Negro counterpart Armstrong Williams, host of "The Right Side". Williams said nothing in response to Kelly's statement.
NNPA
"Texas Gov. George W. Bush's staff has promised to review [Bush's] appointment last year of a police chief who had testified in a civil lawsuit that he did not consider several racially charged terms to be slurs. Charles W. Williams, who was appointed to oversee the state's law enforcement training, testified in a discrimination lawsuit [in 1998] that terms such as "porch monkey" were not racial slurs...Williams, the police chief in Marshall, Texas, was first appointed to the nine-member Texas Commission on Law Enforcement Officer Standards and Education in 1997. Bush elevated him to chairman in November 1999....The agency is charged with setting standards and training for police and other law enforcement officers. It also works to "improve professionalism" and assure that Texans are served by "highly trained and ethical law enforcement and corrections personnel."...On Thursday [4/6/00] , Williams did not retract any of his statements....Doug Hattaway, a spokesman for Vice President Al Gore, Bush's opponent in the presidential race, said the Texas governor still needs to explain his decision to elevate Williams, given the comments in the deposition," --AP
Update Bush demanded an apology from Williams for his "racial slurs" and he offered an apology. Bush and his aides have implied that Williams never would have been promoted to chairman if they had been made aware of his lawsuit testimony, but observers say the case was well-publicized. 4/9/00
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