Posted on 07/11/2004 5:52:10 PM PDT by sandlady
YORK, Pa. - President Bush said Friday that he declined an invitation to speak to the NAACP's convention in Philadelphia because of harsh statements about him by leaders of the venerable civil rights group.
''I would describe my relationship with the current leadership as basically nonexistent,'' Bush told reporters. ``You've heard the rhetoric and the names they've called me.''
Bush added that he ''admired some'' NAACP leaders and said he would seek members' support ``in other ways.''
The decision not to speak was a far cry from candidate Bush's appeal to the NAACP four years ago when he conceded at its convention in Baltimore that Republicans hadn't always gotten along with the group.
`NOT ALWAYS ALLIES'
''The NAACP and the GOP -- have not always been allies, I know that,'' Bush said then. ``But recognizing our past and confronting the common future with a common vision -- by doing that, I believe we can find common ground.''
They haven't. NAACP President Kweisi Mfume is to respond to Bush's comments today at a news conference.
It's the fourth straight year that Bush has declined an invitation to attend the NAACP convention, which opens today in Philadelphia. He's the first sitting president since Herbert Hoover not to address the group.
White House officials initially said scheduling conflicts prevented Bush from making the journey to Philadelphia or addressing the conference via satellite, as he did Thursday to the League of United Latin American Citizens convention in San Antonio, Texas.
Administration officials traveling with the president on Friday on a campaign swing through south-central Pennsylvania signaled that White House annoyance with the NAACP was the major factor.
REASON REVEALED
''The current leadership of the NAACP has certainly made some rather hostile political comments about the president over the past few years,'' White House spokesman Scott McClellan said.
NAACP Chairman Julian Bond, speaking to lawmakers and business leaders in Indiana last month, said Bush and other Republicans appeal to a racist ``dark underside of American culture.''
''They preach racial equality but practice racial division,'' Bond said.
``Their idea of equal rights is the American flag and Confederate swastika flying side-by-side.''
On Thursday, Mfume accused the Bush administration of treating the black community cynically by courting the black vote while stiffing black organizations like the NAACP.
''We're not fools,'' he said.
McClellan said the Bush administration has been courting African-American voters through its political agenda. When Bush talks about his ''No Child Left Behind'' education program, he often speaks about eliminating the ''soft bigotry of low expectations'' that minority children experience in public schools. Bush received only 9 percent of the black vote in 2000.
Worden reports for The Philadelphia Inquirer.
Yeah, well, it only makes me respect him more for refusing the toe the line with them.
Beautifully said.
Maybe quese forgot about it,I don't think President Bush has.
I agree. This would be a good start:
The National Leadership Network of Conservative African-Americans/Project 21
http://www.nationalcenter.org/P21Index.html
One of the basic reasons that the NAACP does not get along with the Republican Party and other conservatives is that Bond and Mfume appear to believe that the only way Blacks can achieve equality is thru Socialism or Communism, both these political entities force equality, at least upon those who are not elite.
The United States was built on Personal Responsibility, Free Enterprise and a Government based on a Republic, with a minimum of governmental control. Centralized government does not work, the USSR and the other Communist countries proved this and it is true today in the Arab countries and Europe, Communism/Socialism does not work, except to create equality. Equality in this sense, equates to everyone having nothing.
Equality can be achieved in two ways, bring the have-nots up or the haves down, I prefer the first option.
I know who I would prefer to go speak to the NAACP... Of course, they would claim they were railroaded.
http://www.rrc.state.tx.us/commissioners/williams/williams.html
I'm sure if they did, the president would be happy to come talk to them. Therefore making the NAACP look like even bigger fools.
I always thought equality pertained to opportunity and not possessions, necessarily.
See #25.
He's kidding, right?
Thank you, somehow I missed that.
This is an interesting turn of events.
It is definitely G.W's pattern to reach out, even to a point we would term it excess. It is also pattern for him to disengage when he believes all options for compromise have reached a close.
He is making a stand now with the NAACP. I have to wonder if this could be a signal of what could come with others that have gone out of their way to be defiant of peace offerings. Though I don't wish to read more into this stance than exists, it is worth considering.
Good idea for "W" to stay away from this bunch.
The NAACLP preaches racial equality but practices racial division. Julian Bond's words fit his own organization perfectly. Like all liberals, he and his boss Kwaisi Mfume aren't aware of just how ironic the NAACLP's accusation hurled against the Bush Administration has turned out to be.
ATTN JULIAN BOND: June 6, 2001 --- KKK Byrd Is 3 Heartbeats from the Presidency
USA TODAY STORY archives | 12-16-02 | dfu
Posted on 12/17/2002 1:20:48 AM CST by doug from upland
FROM USA TODAY -- 6/6/01
By voice vote, the Senate then elected Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., the senior Senate Democrat, as president pro tempore, replacing Sen. Strom Thurmond, R-S.C. That is a constitutional and mostly ceremonial post that is also third in line of succession to the presidency.
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