A Kansas judge has given permission to exhume the remains of Jesse James. First Zachary Taylor, then John Wilkes Booth, now James. They’ll be going for Al Gore next.
If good things come to those who wait, the Republican assault on affirmative action will be something to behold. A bill to ban preferences in federal hiring and contracting is said to be forthcoming from Representative Charles Canady (R., Fla.) and, more importantly, Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole. But it was supposed to be forthcoming before—namely in late June, until Dole abruptly canceled the press conference he had called to announce his bill. Behind some of the GOP skittishness is the idea that large numbers of minority voters are on the verge of joining the GOP (“We are very close to a major breakthrough with black voters,” one House leadership aide explained to the Washington Times), and that attacking affirmative action will alienate them. Maybe. And maybe not—polls have always shown large numbers of black Americans opposed to racial quotas. But whatever the politics, abandoning race neutrality as a principle would be too high a price to pay for a breakthrough with anyone. Speaker Newt Gingrich says he understands this and pledged in a recent letter to the New York Times that it is his intention that “the final [GOP] policy reflect the historic American ideal that personal success and happiness are best achieved through individual liberty and equal justice under the law.” We’re waiting.
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