Political Memo; An Early Test on Race as a Campaign Issue in '92 News Article from the New York Times

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The economic evidence suggests a nild tilt is still appropriate even if it
sometimes serves to limit the opportunities of whites. To work, such policies
require sensitivity, flexibility and bipartisan political support. Mr Bush's
deriunciation of a Liff that, far from inposing radical change, seeks nainly to
restore an unambitious status quo was a disservice to aII Americans.

GRAPHIC: Illustration, ro caPtion

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Copyright (c) 1991- The New York Times Company
The New York Times

June 3, L99l-, Monday, Late Edition - Fina1

SECTION: Section A; Page 1,4i Column Li National Desk

LENGTHI LA74 words

HEADLINE: POLITICAL MEMO;
An Early Test on Race as a Campaign Issue in '92

BYLINE: By ADAM CLYMER, Special to The New York Times

DATELINE: IiIASHINGTON, June 2

BODY:
When the House votes this week on civil rights, more is at issue than this

one bi1l. It is an early test of the continuing resonance of race as a political
issue, a leading indicator of the tone of the L992 campaign.

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( c ) 1,99L The New York Times , June 3 , L99L

The bill, after all, will stil1 have to make its way through the Senate, and
a House-Senate conference comrnittee. Then it wiII confront a threatened
presidential veto, and if that happens, there will be votes on overriding the
veto. So the decision on whether Federal law wiII be changed to make it easier
for victims of job discrirnination to sue and collect damages is some time off.

The debate on Tuesday will hiqhfight some of the real differences among
three proposals: the Democratic leadership bill, President Bush's proposal and a
rrpurer niff sponsored by the Congressional Black Caucus that rejects the
c^ompromises that Democrltic leaders have made to try to win votes. On issues
from the standard of proof needed in job discrirnination cases to the rights of
women to sue for damages to the finality of court orders, the bi11s differ
widely.

But the debate will also tread along the latest fissure in the racial fault
line in American politics that opened when President Lyndon B. Johnson won
passage of the ci+il Rights Act of Lg64 bitl and the L965 Voting Rights Act.

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And, of course, the Republicans may renew the electronic attacks that Senator
Jesse Helms of North Carolina made so effectively last year, 8D ad whose message
was that a deserving white worker }ost a job because of a quota while Mr.
Helns,s Denocratic opponent, Harvey Gantt, backed a rrquota bi11.rr

So next year,s elections -- or even this faIl's, if Mr. Thornburgh runs for
the Senate in Pennsylvania -- may well have both parties filling the airwaves
with attack messages on race. In speeches not guaranteed for television
coverage, they will doubtless deplore the leve1 and tone of the campaign.

So far this year, the Adrninistration has not been a player in seeking common
ground. But Senate Republicans, far more i-nterested in having a bill than their
House counterparts, might bring it into the action. Before that might occur, the
bill has to be a serious issue in the Senate. And for that to happen, the bill
has to come out of the House with momentum.

Prospects for an override

Momentum means a two-thirds vote, or very close to it. In the view of most
supporters, their only chance of getting the White House in a compromi-sing mood
is-Lo be able to scare it with the prospect of overriding a veto, which takes a
two-thirds vote.
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(c) 1991 The New York Times, June 3, L997

Last year the biII got 273 votes. Changes in the makeup of the House, plus
two supporters who did not vote last year, add up to a gain of 10 or 11 votes,
not counting new members who insist they are on the fence-

Mr. Gephardt said in the interview that he believed about three of the l-4
Democrats who voted rrnorr last year and are stil1 in the House would vote trysstt
this tirne. If so, that two-thirds majority is a serious possibility.

The Adrninistration is behaving as if it is worried that the two-thirds
majority night happen. Along with the two public attacks each from Mr. Bush and
ttr. Thoinburgh over the last four days, private Administration efforts have
carried the message of concern even more blunt1y.

On Friday, top White House officials met with 30 business lobbyists for a pep
talk against the bi1I. According to several participants in the meeting, John H.
Sununu, the White House chief of staff, and C. Boyden Gray, the President's
counsel, expressed concern that the Democratic bill would pass with close to or
more than a two-thirds majoritY.

rsununu asked if any of us had a good count on what the final numbers would
be,t, said one participant who spoke on condition of anonymity. rrThe reply was
'damned close. ' rr

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(c) 1991 The New York Times, June 3, l-991

GRAPHIC: Photos: Attorney General Dick Thornburgh, who charged that the
Democratic bill would lead employers to try to stay out of court by tthiring by
the numbers.tt (Associated Press),' Representative Richard A. Gephardt, who said
president Bush was more interested in having rr30-second spotstr than in resolving
the quota question. (PauI Conklin)

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t.

Johnson knew then he was risking the Democratic Party's base among Southern
whites, and in the North, among working-class whites in particular. In 1990, a
New York Tirnes/CBS News PoI1 of voters showed, only 31 percent of Southern
whites and 34 percent of Northern blue-collar white workers caIled themselves
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(c) 1991- The New York Times, June 3, 1991

Democrats.

Todayrs fissure is the issue of ernployment quotas, Iimits on hiring and
promotion based race, sex, religion or national origin. Republicans used the
issue a 1ittle in l-990, and are ready to use it a lot in L992. But the Democrats
have put themselves in a position to do more than saY, ttNor-you don't
underita[d,t'their traditiona]- defense, and, instead, to raise the issue for
their own purposes.

president Bush called the Democratic bill a trquota bil1rr on Saturday at the
commencement exercises at the United States Military Academy. Attorney General
Dick Thornburgh charged today on the ABC News program rrThis Weekrr that the bill
made the risks of tawsuits so onerous that it would lead employers to try to
stay out court by rrhiring by the numbers. rl

1lr. Bush raised the quota issue Last year, when he vetoed a sinilar bil1. The
Democrats have responded both legislatively and rhetorically.

Legislatively, they added a section declaring the use of quotas rran unlawful
ernploynent pracLice.tt Under the biII, someone who was denied a job because of a
qutta-cou1d sue for damages. Rhetoricatly, they accused Mr. Bush of playing
facial politics, recalling how his l-988 campaign benefited from television
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(c) L991, The New York Times, June 3' L99L

advertisements about Willie Horton, a black murderer who while on furlough from
prison raped a wonan and stabbed a man.

Representative Richard A. Gephardt of Missouri, the House majority leader,
said Loday on the NBC News program rrMeet the Pressrr that Mr. Bush rrwants to hold
on to this issuett and was more interested in having rr3O-second spotsrr on
television than in trying to resolve the quota question. trThe President doesn't
want any bilI,tt he said.

A Possible Boast

politicaIly, though, the anti-quota language may be a better weapon than
accusing Mr. Bush of aivisiveness. A Democrat witl be able to boast of his
support for an anti-quota bill, oE say that his Republican opponent voted
against it.

That provision, of course, has been attacked by Mr. Bush and Mr. Thornburgh
as too narroh, to be effective or meaningful. But in the world of 3O-second
advertisements, that is an awfully complicated argument. As Mr. Gephardt
acknowledged in an interview today, a political commercial could say r'{This
bill outliwed quotas and that biII didn't,' and f think that takes care of it
for a spot. rl

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(c) L99I The New York Times, June 3, 1991

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