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Posted on 01/16/2003 8:37:49 PM PST by Pokey78
National security adviser Condoleezza Rice took a rare central role in a domestic debate within the White House and helped persuade President Bush to publicly condemn race-conscious admissions policies at the University of Michigan, administration officials said yesterday.
The officials said Rice, in a series of lengthy one-on-one meetings with Bush, drew on her experience as provost at Stanford University to help convince him that favoring minorities was not an effective way of improving diversity on college campuses.
Rice, the first female national security adviser, told Bush that she worked to increase the number of African American faculty members at Stanford but that she was "absolutely opposed to quotas," a senior administration official said. A Stanford official said that under Rice, who served from 1993 to 1999 and was the university's first nonwhite provost, the number of black faculty members increased from 36 to 44.
Officials described Rice as one of the prime movers behind Bush's announcement on Wednesday that he would urge the Supreme Court to strike down Michigan's affirmative action program.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
No, Bush was going to take an opposing stand from the getgo. He went to Rice to bounce his questions off of her. Being opposed to quotas, Rice told him of her experience at Stanford, and put paid to the proposition that Michigan's standards were anything other than quotas. Nice to see that we have a National Security Advisor with a pair under her skirt.
So to speak.
Be Seeing You,
Chris
How does he urge the SCOTUS to do his will? In the military it's called "Command Influence" and is illegal.
He files a brief to the court with the Gov't official position. The court doesn't have to go along.
Actually, the article doesn't say that. It goes on to paint a quite normal decision making process with the cabinet providing an array of options for the Chief Executive to choose from. He definitely wanted to take a stand on the issue- regardless- but the devil is in the details. Exactly how to take a stand on it, what type of language to use, which approach has the best legal chance and possible ramifications of the options.
The thing about Condi Rice is- she is one of Dubya's most trusted advisors, some actually paint her as the most trusted advisor he has. He feels very comfortable with her opinions and advice and apparantly they get on very well together. She would be a logical advisor in this case because of her own personal history with similar issues, namely her time as provost at Stanford.
Her advice didn't convince him to do what he wanted to do anyway. He wanted to take a narrower stance but she convinced him to present a more proactive approach- ie racial diversity can be achieved by different methods than quotas- whereas he feels that diversity will happen on its own and wanted to let it evolve. I think he may be right, but her method is probably the better political approach- you're offering something constructive in the face of critics who will want to say Bush simply wants to end affirmative action. Dubya can say to this that he is for diversity, but we can achieve it in a fair way. This is the same razor edge path he took with stem cells and I bet he pulls it off.
An official said Bush's counsel, Alberto R. Gonzales, presented the options in neutral terms, describing how each position could be argued. Officials said Bush only fleetingly considered his option to remain silent on the case, deciding that it was of sufficient national importance that he should describe his views.
Well, obviously they can't be correct. I mean, he is taking a position and making it known.
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