THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, March 28, 1996 TAG: 9603280001
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A18 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Short : 38 lines
To many Portsmouth African Americans, it must sound like a good-news, bad-news joke.
The good news is that the Portsmouth Republican Party, by acclamation, has named an African American, James Quash Jr., as its chairman. He might be the first black to chair a Republican city committee in Virginia in modern times, according to State Republican Executive Director Dave Johnson.
The bad news, from the point of view of many African Americans, is that Quash is a self-proclaimed ``dittohead,'' an aficionado of conservative radio talk-show host Rush Limbaugh. The recorded message on Quash's home phone says, ``Sorry, we can't answer the telephone now because we are watching the Rush Limbaugh television show.'' And he signs off with, ``Have a ditto day.''
Limbaugh sneers at affirmative action and political correctness. He voices support for the civil rights of white males but has shown little concern for the civil rights of minorities.
The good news for voters black and white is that the Portsmouth Republican Party, by naming a black city chairman, demonstrates that it is reaching out, perhaps abandoning Republicans' oft-successful-but-divisive Southern Strategy of presenting Democrats as the party of blacks and itself as the party of whites.
Quash may not be unique for long. Saturday in Virginia Beach at the city GOP's annual mass meeting to select new leadership, Delceno C. Miles, an African-American businesswoman, is a leading candidate to be named chairperson. by CNB