ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, February 11, 1997 TAG: 9702110070
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
WITH FRIENDS like Bill Bennett, Republicans who hope to attract more support among blacks don't need enemies.
Bennett, former education secretary and self-appointed virtue guru, sharply criticized House Speaker Newt Gingrich for inviting civil-rights leader Jesse Jackson to sit in the speaker's box during President Clinton's State of the Union address last week.
The House speaker further offended Bennett by appearing to apologize for Oklahoma Rep. J.C. Watts' suggestion that some liberal black leaders like Jackson were ``race-hustling poverty pimps.'' (Incidentally, Watts, a black Republican, personally apologized to Jackson for the remark.)
Bennett as much as accused Gingrich of political apostasy - abandoning conservative Republicans' agenda by ``trying to cozy up to the left.'' He called on Gingrich to cease and desist or step down as speaker.
The speaker in fact has shown concern about problems afflicting the poor in inner-cities, and has even had the temerity to suggest government might be able to help out. Last year, for example, he supported increased funding for locally based community action agencies. Even so, he seems an unlikely candidate for metamorphosis into a bleeding-heart liberal.
What should trouble Republicans far more is the implication in Bennett's criticism that no one in a position of GOP leadership has any business trying to reach out to black leaders.
As Jackson himself observed, it is astonishing that Bennett would be so adamantly against the speaker's trying to build some common-ground dialogue with those who disagree with conservative Republicans' agenda. Would Bennett prefer Gingrich to slam the door in the face of all those who didn't sign off on the Contract with America, and who may have different ideas for solving the nation's problems - racial divisions among them?
At a time of much talk about the need for political civility and bipartisan problem-solving, Mr. Virtue needs to get with the program.
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