Word: thurmond
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...sentiment was laudable, but its source was a surprise. There, arguing for the nomination of a black attorney to the Federal Government's top civil rights position, sat South Carolina Republican Strom Thurmond, who had once declared, "There's not enough troops in the Army to break down segregation and admit the Negro into our homes, our eating places, our swimming pools and our theaters." His current rationale: "It seems to me that we ought to give this black man a chance. Years ago, minorities didn't have a chance...
...Thurmond's astonishing plea for equal opportunity failed to sway a majority of the Democratic-controlled Senate Judiciary Committee. Twice the committee deadlocked, 7 to 7, on sending the nomination to the full Senate, effectively killing the appointment of William Lucas, 61, as Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights. Republican committee members denounced the votes as bigoted and based on a double standard. Lucas was turned down, said Attorney General Dick Thornburgh in an angry statement, as a "result of raw politics...
Double standards have, in fact, played a role in the Judiciary Committee's handling of the Administration's choices for important Justice Department posts. In July, Robert B. Fiske, a New York lawyer, was forced to withdraw his nomination as Deputy Attorney General. Reason: conservative Republicans led by Thurmond complained that Fiske, a highly experienced prosecutor, was too liberal...
...President's future appointments and proposals. When the Senate returns after Labor Day, the President and his Attorney General face another firefight over the nomination of Clarence Thomas, the ultraconservative black chairman of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, to the federal appeals court in Washington. That battle might give Thurmond another opportunity to cast himself as a sanctimonious champion of civil rights...
...minorities with leadership positions in the Republican National Committee. He even promoted his love of black music, strumming a guitar and warbling at Washington rhythm-and-blues clubs. At the same time, Atwater -- who cut his political teeth as a protege of South Carolina's once segregationist Senator Strom Thurmond -- downplayed his role in devising the crypto-racist Willie Horton ads that helped Bush win the White House. "That's in the past," he insisted...