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TIME: Almanac 1990
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1990 Time Magazine Compact Almanac, The (1991)(Time).iso
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081489
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1990-09-17
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NATION, Page 29Politics and Double StandardsA Senate committee rejects another Bush appointee
The sentiment was laudable, but its source was a surprise.
There, arguing for the nomination of a black attorney to the
Federal Government's top civil rights position, sat South Carolina
Republican Strom Thurmond, who had once declared, "There's not
enough troops in the Army to break down segregation and admit the
Negro into our homes, our eating places, our swimming pools and our
theaters." His current rationale: "It seems to me that we ought to
give this black man a chance. Years ago, minorities didn't have a
chance."
Thurmond's astonishing plea for equal opportunity failed to
sway a majority of the Democratic-controlled Senate Judiciary
Committee. Twice the committee deadlocked, 7 to 7, on sending the
nomination to the full Senate, effectively killing the appointment
of William Lucas, 61, as Assistant Attorney General for Civil
Rights. Republican committee members denounced the votes as bigoted
and based on a double standard. Lucas was turned down, said
Attorney General Dick Thornburgh in an angry statement, as a
"result of raw politics."
Was that really the case? During two days of hearings on his
nomination, a coalition of civil rights organizations assailed
Lucas for his lack of qualifications. The former FBI agent and
Republican candidate for Governor of Michigan conceded that he "was
new to the law." A practicing attorney for only two years, he had
never tried a case, written a brief or argued an appeal. Most
damaging, Lucas displayed a woeful ignorance of basic civil rights
issues. Asked about the distinction between de facto (actual) and
de jure (legal) segregation, Lucas drew a blank. "If it had been
a white man who had been nominated who had the same background,"
said Alabama Democrat Howell Heflin, "he wouldn't have gotten
anywhere. I think the fact that Mr. Lucas was black caused more
consideration to be given to him."
Double standards have, in fact, played a role in the Judiciary
Committee's handling of the Administration's choices for important
Justice Department posts. In July, Robert B. Fiske, a New York
lawyer, was forced to withdraw his nomination as Deputy Attorney
General. Reason: conservative Republicans led by Thurmond
complained that Fiske, a highly experienced prosecutor, was too
liberal.
There was another element of hypocrisy in the Republican
complaints. As Lucas' proponents are well aware, there is no such
thing as an apolitical political appointment. The Bush
Administration, which hopes to attract more black voters to the
G.O.P., certainly had that goal in mind when it selected a black
for the civil rights post. It has not ruled out giving Lucas a
"recess appointment" to the job while Congress is out of session,
which would allow him to serve until the end of 1990 without being
confirmed. But if the Administration goes that route, it is sure
to anger the Senate, endangering the President's future
appointments and proposals. When the Senate returns after Labor
Day, the President and his Attorney General face another firefight
over the nomination of Clarence Thomas, the ultraconservative black
chairman of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, to the
federal appeals court in Washington. That battle might give
Thurmond another opportunity to cast himself as a sanctimonious
champion of civil rights.