One Righteous
Dis: Bush Right to Turn Down NAACP
by Deroy Murdock
Liberal bellies are aching over President
George W. Bush's absence from the Philadelphia convention of
the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
(NAACP). Citing scheduling conflicts, the White House sent the
president's regrets. As journalists have explained in grave and
slightly damning tones, Bush is the first president since Warren
Harding not to address the NAACP. The insinuation is that Bush's
no-show before America's oldest and largest civil-rights group
reflects his neglect of, if not disdain for, black Americans.
No one should be surprised, however,
to see Bush toss the NAACP's invitation into the trash. That's
exactly where the Baltimore-based organization has relegated
him since 2000. NAACP chairman Julian Bond and president Kweisi
Mfume have played tag team in bashing Bush and the GOP.
"So, we've got... a President that's
prepared to take us back to the days of Jim Crow segregation
and dominance," Mfume told Washington journalist Hazel Trice
Edney just before the convention. Mfume either is lying through
his teeth or clinically delusional if he believes Bush hopes
to reintroduce segregated water fountains and "colored only"
waiting rooms. Mfume should try the truth, or see a psychiatrist.
Bond's rhetoric is equally reckless.
Bush and the GOP "preach racial
equality but practice racial division," Bond said June 23
in Indianapolis. "Their idea of equal rights is the American
flag and Confederate swastika flying side by side."
Bond told the NAACP's 2003 Miami Beach
convention: "Republicans appeal to the dark underside of
American culture, to that minority of Americans who reject democracy
and equality."
President Bush "has selected nominees
from the Taliban wing of American politics," Bond informed
the NAACP's New Orleans confab in 2001, as the September 11 hijackers
learned to fly. "He has appeased the wretched appetites
of the extreme right wing. And he has chosen cabinet officials
whose devotion to the Confederacy is nearly canine in its uncritical
affection."
No wonder Bush found a better use of
his valuable time than to associate with these racial bomb-throwers.
Far from dissing black Americans, Bush
has met with them throughout his presidency. He attended the
National Urban League's conventions. He hosted a White House
celebration of the 1964 Civil Rights Act's 40th anniversary.
Urban League president Marc Morial was there, as was civil-rights
veteran Dorothy Hite. He has spoken to black churchgoers about
his faith-based initiative.
Mfume also whined that "the President
has refused to meet with the Congressional Black Caucus."
There he goes again.
Bush, in fact, invited the all-Democratic
CBC to the Cabinet Room on January 31, 2001. "They had a
warm meeting," White House Assistant Press Secretary Anne
Womack said then. "It was scheduled for 30 minutes and actually
lasted nearly an hour."
President Bush even has addressed...
the NAACP. The day after Bond's "Taliban" outburst,
Bush offered its 2001 convention a video greeting. "I believe
that even when disagreements arise," Bush said, "we
should treat each other with civility and with respect."
Bush appeared personally before the NAACP
as a 2000 presidential contender. In thanks, it telecast an infamous
ad that fall which virtually implicated Bush in the 1998 truck-dragging
murder of James Byrd in Jasper, Texas. Never mind that two of
this black man's three white killers were sentenced to death
on Governor Bush's watch.
Yes, Bush should campaign before black
Americans, but he should not bother to plead with black leftists
who hate his guts. Instead, he should meet with moderate to conservative
blacks who are open to and even supportive of his policies. The
Congress of Racial Equality, the National Center for Neighborhood
Enterprise and Project 21 - as well as black business and religious
groups - would treat Bush respectfully.
Julian Bond, Kweisi Mfume and their NAACP
cronies should stop screaming like infants and learn this simple
lesson: Don't expect grown adults to treat hand grenades like
engraved invitations.
