THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, July 28, 1996 TAG: 9607260025
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J4 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: 32 lines
I was amused at the Associated Press report on candidate Bob Dole's excuses for ducking out on his opportunity to speak before the NAACP convention.
The former senator first claimed a scheduling conflict. He later used the pretext that NAACP Chairman Kweisi Mfume was trying to set him up. He has thus attempted to shift blame to Mfume as if he had been scheduled to appear one-on-one before this unfriendly liberal Democrat to the exclusion of the rank-and-file convention delegates. Dole then impaled himself on the horns of another dilemma when, contrary to logic, he tried to ``set up'' fellow Republican Jack Kemp for a substitute appearance before the very group he believed he (Dole) couldn't relate to despite his ``flawless civil-rights record.''
Yet another pair of inconsonant and pandering horns sprouted when Mr. Dole touted his civil-rights record in the same breath with his disavowal of advance knowledge about the invitation he obviously would have declined anyhow. This implies that he truly didn't know the annual convention was going on or that in recent years, all previous Republican and Democrat candidates have received similar invitations.
So, as I see it, Bob Dole has provided some very implausible and inconsistent sound bites for shunning the NAACP. I can't help but conclude that his actions and statements in this whole affair amount to nothing but thinly veiled efforts to curry favor with the right-wing element of his party.
WELFORD BURRELL
Chesapeake, July 13, 1996 by CNB