Double talk

[Guest guest]

Saturday, December 3, 2005

 

Editorials Headline: Double-speak on rights

 

 

Double-speak on rights The basic cynicism -- and duplicity -- of the

nation's Republican hierarchy has been on full display this week.

 

On Thursday, President Bush (who exactly three years ago was extolling the

virtues of arch-segregationist Strom Thurmond on his 100th birthday) made a big

deal of the 50th anniversary of Rosa Parks' defiance on a Montgomery bus.

 

Of Sen. Thurmond (who died a year later), Mr. Bush said in 2002: " His

patriotism, courage and lifetime dedication to South Carolina and his nation

will always be remembered. "

 

Of Ms. Parks (who died in October), the President said: She " set in motion a

national movement for equality and freedom. " A movement that Sen. Thurmond and

many others now in the southern Republican Party did everything they could to

impede.

 

But wait a minute, you say. Didn't Mr. Bush also use the occasion of the Parks

anniversary to announce his support for extension of the 1965 Voting Rights Act?

 

Indeed he did, and as a result, surprised blacks in the audience (including

the Rev. Jesse Jackson) cheered him and had nice things to say.

 

Perhaps they've reconsidered that enthusiasm after reading yesterday's

Washington Post. A front-page story reported that the Bush administration's

Justice Department deep-sixed a report concluding that a controversial Texas

redistricting plan clearly violated the 1965 act.

 

That plan, which was spearheaded by former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay

(who is under indictment for felonious activities in elections), illegally

diluted black and Hispanic voting power in two congressional districts,

according to the memo prepared by the Justice Department staff.

 

Senior Justice Department officials, working for then-Attorney General John

Ashcroft, took the unusual step in 2003 of not only disregarding the memo, but

ordering it sealed and imposing a gag rule on the staff members who wrote it. A

source provided a copy for The Post.

 

A federal court has upheld the GOP plan, which helped solidify the party's

hold on the U.S. House, but a challenge is before the Supreme Court.

 

It is all well and good to say nice things about Rosa Parks, put her coffin in

the Capitol rotunda and erect a statue to her.

 

But what she and the others who fought, bled and died in the struggle for

civil rights deserve is an honest effort to enforce the laws and to ensure that

the Voting Rights Act is not only extended but implemented. That's not what the

Bush administration is doing.

 

 

 

" When the power of love becomes stronger than the love of power, we will have

peace. "

Jimi Hendrix