Bush & the Black Caucusians
Be careful where you nod, Mr. President.

By Roger Clegg, general counsel of the Center for Equal Opportunity
February 1, 2001 3:00 p.m.

resident Bush met yesterday with the Congressional Black Caucus. The meeting was scheduled to last 45 minutes but instead lasted twice that long. Bush and the attendees each seem to have been happy with the meeting, although the New York Times had to note that the caucus was "deeply suspicious" — since, as even the densest reader of the Times has by now learned, no black person voted for Bush in the recent election, and indeed no black person was allowed to vote in Florida at all.

A word first about the meeting's attendees. "About 30" of the 36 members of the caucus actually attended, according to the Washington Post. The Post reports that the three black members of the Florida delegation "boycotted" the meeting. "The president wants to placate us, but you can't just spin the kind of hurt we felt in Florida," said Rep. Carrie P. Meek (D., Fla.). (Amusingly, the White House press pool nonetheless attributed a quotation to Meek at the meeting, apparently confusing her with Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D., Ga.).)

Maxine Waters (D., Cal.) also did not attend, saying she wanted to continue her effort to win votes against John Ashcroft's confirmation as attorney general. Waters has publicly called Ashcroft a racist. Finally, the caucus does not include the lone black Republican in Congress, Oklahoma Representative J. C. Watts. According to Watts's office, his nonmembership in the caucus was mutually agreed to by him and the caucus Democrats, because they "disagree philosophically."

Bush gave a short welcoming statement to the caucus, thanking "you all for coming" and emphasizing his interest in discussing education issues, in particular. He and the caucus agreed that improving schools should be Congress's top priority. But Bush spent most of the rest of the meeting just listening.

There were two exceptions. Bush did bring up the need to "fight the scourge of AIDS in Africa." This is rather irritating. Why should the president single out a disease in a part of the world that is mostly black rather than some other disease somewhere else the afflicts mostly white, black, yellow, or brown foreigners? One would think that the caucus would feel insulted or at least patronized by such a comment — "Why, those people are the same that color that you are!" — but, to the contrary, Bush's assurance was apparently welcomed as part of its agenda.

Bush also expressed his concern about outmoded voting machines in Florida. But there was an interesting item in the Washington Post this week about a recent study by an economist and political scientist "who have analyzed voting technology across the nation. They found no pattern of discrimination. Instead, they determined that African Americans and the poor were no more likely than whites or more affluent voters to reside in counties that use the much-maligned punch-card machines."

Ah, but what about Florida in particular? "Even in Florida, the technology gap appears to be a crack and not a chasm. The researchers found that 60.4 percent of all whites and 63.1 percent of all blacks lived in counties that used the punch card voting system. At the same time, they found that blacks were slightly more likely to live in counties that used state-of-the-art optical scanning devices."

That said, there is no reason for Bush not to agree that voting-rights violations ought to be aggressively investigated and that reforms should be explored that will make voting more efficient and counting votes more accurate. He doesn't have to be defensive about this. Even if there were more blacks whose votes should have been counted and weren't in Florida — the results of the continuing, informal recounts so far have been underwhelming — there were indisputably more minorities whose votes shouldn't have been counted but were (felons, noncitizens, and other unregistered voters).

There is also no reason for Bush not to continue his outreach efforts, like meeting with the Congressional Black Caucus. The demonization of Republicans by Democrats as anti-minority cannot be left unanswered. But it must be complemented by two other initiatives.

First, while at the national level Bush makes his more symbolic overtures, the GOP must redouble its efforts to work with blacks, Hispanics, and Asians on local, nuts-and-bolts issues. Republicans can win the trust of blacks as well or better by fixing potholes than by talking about AIDS in Africa.

Second, when Democrats and their allies play the race card — calling the Republicans racist because they favor the death penalty or whatever — they should be mercilessly condemned. It is the relatively recent rise of racial politics by the left that accounts for the Republicans' abysmal showing at the polls among blacks, not a real lack of affinity of interests between the GOP and many African Americans.

On the other hand, Bush absolutely must not adopt in whole or in part the racialist agenda of the Congressional Black Caucus and the rest of the civil-rights establishment, particularly on matters of racial and ethnic preferences. For instance, Bush's nomination of John Ashcroft to be attorney general "was the first thing that came up" with the caucus, said Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D., Mich.). "We explained to him why we couldn't buy Ashcroft in 100 years." But a principal reason the caucus opposes Ashcroft is his opposition to racial preferences.

Black lawmakers also would like Bush to make permanent President Clinton's eleventh-hour recess appointment of Roger L. Gregory to the U.S. court of appeals. But the only reason that Clinton made the appointment, and the only reason black lawmakers are supporting him, is that Gregory happens to be black. Bush should decide whom he wants to be on the court of appeals, irrespective of race. If the last three months have not taught Bush that judges are too important to be bartered away, then he may be as learning-impaired as Jay Leno jokes that he is.

The New York Times credited Bush with "nodd[ing] his head to the chorus and sway[ing] at the refrain" during his visit this Sunday to the predominantly black Lincoln Park United Methodist Church. Nodding and swaying is fine in church, Mr. President — but be careful about doing that during a meeting with the Congressional Black Caucus.