University Daily Kansan / Friday, November 22. 1991
5
Bush's leadership questioned after explosive rights proposal
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Who's in charge at the White House? President Bush's hasty retreat yesterday from an explosive civil rights directive exposed a picture of disarray in an administration already accused of indecision and confusion
"The administration is changing course so frequently, it's hard to know what direction it's taking," said Rep. Vic Fazio, D-Calif, head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
Republicans, too, are shaking their heads at the appearance of a White House adrift, as Bush's poll ratings have dropped and his anxiety about the stumping economy.
"Sooner or later the president will get his act together," GOP consultant Ed Rollins remarked hopefully this week, even before the flare-up about a White House proposal to revoke federal policies giving preferences to women and minorities in hiring and promotion.
Bush was to have announced the sweeping change in policy even as he signed into law a landmark civil rights bill.
But the wording of the directive leaked out Wednesday night, arousing outrage among civil rights leaders
who denounced it as a declaration of war against women and minorities.
Alarm bells went off in the White House, triggering a late-night debate about the appearance that Bush was signing civil rights protections into law with one hand but taking them away with the other.
The directive was eventually dropped, but questions White House officials
Intent on protecting Bush, White House officials blamed the president's counsel, C. Boyden Gray, for the attack. Because his office drafted the directive
White House chief of staff John Sununu also shared some of the blame, officials said privately, because he should have recognized the explosive nature of the proposal and stopped it before it circulated.
Democrats gleefully rejected White House assertions that Bush did not know what was happening.
"To say, 'Oh, Boyden Gray did something without consulting with the president,' that's absolutely ridiculous." said Rep. Patricia Schroeder, D-Colo. "This is just a way for the president to cover his rear."
"We don't have leadership in the White House," charged Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga. "We have a president who believes whatever he thinks will work at the time."
Others saw the now-discarded proposal as a bribe to conservatives who are uneasy about Bush's commitment to their cause.
Those are potential presidential challengers from the right.
Even before the civil rights flap, the White House was on the defensive.
Bush is still smarting over the fall-out from his call last week for lower interest rates on credit card charges. His offhand remark, in a speech in New York, set off a stampede in Congress to mandate a reduction and was blamed in part for the plunge in the stock market last Friday.
Moreover, the administration is deeply divided about what to do about the faltering economy. Led by Housing Secretary Jack Kemp, some officials are pressing Bush to call for a tax cut for the middle class, while other advisers, including Budget Director Richard Darman and Treasury Secretary Nicholas Brady, are counseling a stand-pat strategy.
Bush himself appears to be in conflict, worrying aloud at times that people are hurting but on the other hand he is showing many economic indicators are positive.
Pulled both ways. Bush plans to do nothing before his State of the Union address.
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