Posted on 12/19/2002 5:33:48 AM PST by concerned about politics
Lani Guinier: Clinton Pandered to Segregationist Whites
After he was sued in the late 1980s by the NAACP's Legal Defense Fund for failing to enforce the Voting Rights Act in Arkansas, then-Gov. Bill Clinton suggested to a group of pro-segregation whites that they were being unfairly targeted by civil rights laws as a result of the South's loss in the Civil War, according to one-time Clinton administration Civil Rights Division nominee Lani Guinier.
"In the late 1980s, in a particularly tense meeting in southeastern Arkansas - a section of the Mississippi Delta region where antebellum social relations are still in many respects the order of the day - [Guinier's friend] Dayna [Cunningham] and a local LDF cooperating lawyer were part of a handful of black people there to discuss remedies for a highly contentious LDF voting rights suit," wrote Guinier in her 1998 memoir, "Lift Every Voice."
"The meeting turned sour when one of the local whites demanded to know why, in his view, the whites were always made to pay for others' problems. Other whites in the group began to echo his charge. ..."
Guinier continued:
"Bill Clinton, the lead defendant in the case, took to the podium to respond. In a tone of resignation, Clinton said, 'We have to pay because we lost.'" Guinier said Cunningham inferred that Clinton was referring to the South's Civil War loss as well as his loss in the court case.
"Clinton had so irresponsibly pandered to the backwards feeling of the white constituency" in his speech about the voting rights lawsuit, Cunningham told Guinier.
News of Clinton's attempt to pander to Arkansas whites who were angry that he'd lost a lawsuit for not enforcing the Voting Rights Act comes just hours after the ex-president accused Republicans of doing the same thing.
"They try to suppress black voting, they ran on the Confederate flag in Georgia and South Carolina, and from top to bottom the Republicans supported it," Clinton said of the GOP on Wednesday, when asked to comment on the continuing Trent Lott flap.
In fact, the Arkansas state flag added a single star above the state's name in 1923 to commemorate its membership in the Confederacy, a design that remained unaltered throughout Clinton's five terms as governor.
After tapping Guinier for the top Justice Department civil rights post in 1993, Clinton abruptly yanked her nomination after critics labeled her a "Quota Queen." Guinier said she felt betrayed by Clinton, whom she considered a friend since their days together at Yale Law School, and was angered when he called her "anti-democratic" in a nationally televised address announcing he was scuttling her nomination.
So what's your point?
Most of the Southern Republicans were Democrats. Are you suggesting that they return to being Democrats and forever ban the Republicans to minority status?
And exchange the "morons" who vote overwhelmingly for conservative initiatives for moderates whose bleeding hearts lead them to unite with Democrats?
Even so-called "morons" can be valuable.
By 1960, Republicans had already created equality for blacks - even through all kinds of Democrat tricks to stop them.
Strom jumped in '64, and by then was pro-equality himself, via his hiring more blacks than anyone else in the Senate at the time. It's called "enlightenment", or "repentance".
Democrats = keep the slaves in their place.
Republicans = Equality.
Strom moved to the Republicans.
In lieu of rapists I will throw in obnoxious blowhards, classless buffoons, weaselly suck-ups, and big-nosed anti-Americans. How's that?
There's nothing sticking out the front of it, of course.
No. I'm saying those being attacked for being racist were Democrats. Lott, Strom, even Reagan!
If the left wants to say "they have a history of being racist", that's where it comes from !! Their "history" is democrat.
........
Wonder if poor Roger heard this language around the household. Mama must have never taught them right from wrong.
People do have slips of the tongue ... yet we forgive him (GWB) ... because we know his heart is in the right place.
Differentiating between these two men is easy. We forgive W because he does not seek forgiveness. He is not ashamed of his mistakes. People mis-speak or garble their words often and the total number of people bothered by Bush's language skills would fit quite easily in any small city. Berkeley, perhaps.
Yet the argument given why Lott should step down is that "he should know better" than to make such stupid statements.
By contrast, Lott has made these statements over the course of thirty years. First as a Democrat then as a Republican. These statements can easily be described by his opponents as pro-segregationist. He now seeks our acceptance of his numerous apologies (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, ... and counting).
These statements can ALSO easily be described by Republicans as anethema to the parties principled stand on racial issues. Lott's prior statements seem to imply that "coloreds" are less than equal. In his interview with B.E.T. he voiced his newfound support for affirmative action. This statement seems to imply that "coloreds" should be treated as more than equal.
Affirmative action accepts the premise of segregationists, that "coloreds" are not equal, and grants preferences or opportunities which would otherwise be unavailable if people were judged on merit.
Republicans believe in equality. You cannot believe that all men are created equal and also accept the premise that affirmative action is required.
When you make a "stupid" statement, you can not solve the problem by making another "stupid" statement.
They're saying this is nothing new. Republicans have always been racist. They're taking it WAY beyond Lott. They're trying to go back in time.
I'm just stating the truth. It's the exact opposite if they go back in time.
'Pod
That's the $64,000 question, isn't it ? FOX News helps, but it's cable and doesn't reach enough people -- Pres. Bush could use the "bully" pulpit, but, in this case, I think he needs to stay above the fray -- J. C. Watts was a perfect spokesman, but he's leaving the House -- any ideas ? anybody ?
Exactly! So where was the GOP attack hounds when Clinton gave a medal to a Fulbright?
All those great opportunities lost...
Yep. I hope the GOP doesn't make that same mistake again!
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