Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, July 20, 1995 TAG: 9507200067
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Cox News Service
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
After five months of review and apparent wavering in the White House, the president told a gathering of the who's who in the civil rights and women's rights community: ``Let me be clear, affirmative action has been good for America.''
He argued that policies to boost minorities and women and to set aside government contracts for businesses owned by members of these groups are a ``moral imperative'' and a ``legal necessity.''
The few changes he proposed include a new crackdown on fraud, plus efforts to make the programs conform to a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision that narrowly limits gender and sex preferences in contracts to areas where there has been discrimination.
Clinton also called for setting aside more government contracts for companies in low-income areas, a move that aides said would probably require approval from the Republican-controlled Congress.
His tight embrace of almost every aspect of affirmative action set off a reaction among his Republican challengers that is almost certain to reverberate throughout the 1996 presidential campaign.
California Gov. Pete Wilson said Clinton was employing a ``political strategy to divide and to placate the advocates of continued racial discrimination.''
Wilson, a GOP presidential hopeful and foe of affirmative action, told CNN that the policy is ``a virus that threatens to tribalize America.''
Another Republican candidate, Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole of Kansas, responded by promising to introduce legislation next week ``to get the federal government out of the group-preference business.''
And Pat Buchanan, another GOP presidential candidate, assailed Clinton's ``plan to perpetuate government-sponsored racial discrimination.''
Perhaps most important for Clinton's re-election hopes, the speech brought measured praise from the Rev. Jesse Jackson, who has been threatening to bolt the Democratic Party and mount an independent candidacy that would siphon off crucial black votes.
Jackson said the president ``challenged the country to choose history over hysteria'' and added that the speech ``seemed to be driven by conviction, courage and hope.''
The five-month review of affirmative action was driven, in part, by concerns about white males with stagnating wages and job opportunities who blame programs that give preference to minorities and women.
Clinton said the White House review convinced him that ``affirmative action did not cause the great economic problems of the American middle class.''
by CNB