[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 25 (Monday, March 3, 1997)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E360]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         WARD CONNERLY'S CAUSE

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. NEWT GINGRICH

                               of georgia

                    in the house of representatives

                         Monday, March 3, 1997

  Mr. GINGRICH. Mr. Speaker, I would like to commend to my colleagues 
the following article by syndicated columnist Ben Wattenberg. 
Wattenberg is a life-long Democrat, but recognizes that our Nation 
cannot thrive in the 21st century if we continue to count ourselves by 
race and gender. Wattenberg identifies the heroic work of California's 
Ward Connerly in spreading this message across the Nation. I submit Ben 
Wattenberg's column into the Congressional Record and urge my 
colleagues to read it.

               [From the Washington Times, Feb. 20, 1997]

                         Ward Connerly's Cause

                          (By Ben Wattenberg)

       In California during the election season last year, Ward 
     Connerly led the California Civil Rights Initiative 
     (Proposition 209) to victory. The attacks on Mr. Connerly 
     were ferocious and personal.
       Watching Mr. Connerly elicit war whoops from a mostly 
     conservative audience in Washington, it is apparent why the 
     attacks on him during the election were so nasty. Mr. 
     Connerly is a black man who is a serious threat to 
     establishment civil-rights activists. He fights back. He 
     reminds us there is more than one high-minded side to the 
     race question in America.
       He is a strong speaker with conservative Reaganite views on 
     more issues than affirmative action, or if you prefer, 
     preference. He has a biting sense of humor and speaks to a 
     theme supported by a large majority of Americans. By the time 
     he ended his remarks, the testimonial dinner audience 
     organized by the Independent Women's Forum (IWF) buzzed with 
     the question that counts in Washington: ``What will he run 
     for?''
       Mr. Connerly is not happy with Jesse Jackson, the leading 
     sound bite on the pro-preference side--for both substantive 
     and personal reasons. Mr. Connerly is a member of the 
     California Board of Regents. He recalled that when he was 
     pushing to do away with preference in college admissions, Mr. 
     Jackson had come to a board meeting, asked for a prayer to 
     begin the session, and then called Mr. Connerly a ``house 
     slave'' and ``a puppet of the white man.''
       Newt Gingrich was in the audience at the IWF event, along 
     with Rep. Henry Hyde, Sen Phil Gramm and other GOP political 
     figures. Mr. Connerly said he approved of Mr. Gingrich's 
     invitation to Mr. Jackson to sit with Mrs. Gingrich during 
     the State of the Union address--long pause--if Mrs. Gingrich 
     could endure being with Mr. Jackson for the duration of a 
     Clinton speech. He thought that if Mr. Gingrich had invited 
     Mr. Jackson in the spirit of bipartisanship, then President 
     Clinton should invite Mr. Connerly to spend the night in the 
     Lincoln Bedroom--pause--and waive the $100,000 fee.
       He took note of the firestorm caused by the remark of Rep. 
     J.C. Watts, Jr., a fellow black conservative. who had 
     characterized some putatively unnamed black leaders as 
     ``race-hustling poverty pimps.'' He observed that Mr. 
     Watts prays with Mr. Jackson, and offered some advice: 
     ``J.C., when you pray with Jesse, don't close your eyes.''
       Political Washington loves this raw meat, particularly 
     after a few drinks. But Mr. Connerly spoke substance as well. 
     He recalled his childhood in segregated, Louisiana and the 
     signs in roadside restaurants: ``We do not serve colored.'' 
     But Mr. Connerly also remembers the people who helped him get 
     ahead as a teen-ager in Bremerton, Wash., working downtown in 
     a fabric store after school. He blesses the country that let 
     him rise to affluence as a California businessman.
       He says there are times to look forward, not backward to go 
     beyond the poison of racism, slavery and segregation, and to 
     get on with life. He rejects membership in the ``victims club 
     of America'' and says a better America cannot be built when 
     ``our government allocates opportunities on the basis of skin 
     color, genitalia and the spelling of last names.''
       This is the race-neutral side of the civil-rights argument. 
     As, and if it gains further currency, it can shatter the 
     monopoly of the racial political now seen in the Democratic 
     Party.
       Although invited, no Democratic members of Congress showed 
     up at the IWF dinner. Not coincidentally, the flexible Mr. 
     Clinton has shown no flexibility on affirmative action 
     (neither ending, nor mending). Mr. Clinton has even taken the 
     bizarre stance that Proposition 209 is unconstitutional, 
     putting the government in the incredible position of saying 
     that antidiscrimination is against the law.
       Mr. Connerly was scalded by opponents during the epic fight 
     to overturn preferences. He also has sharp comments for some 
     expected allies who jumped ship when the seas got rough, 
     saying, well, 209 wasn't really nuanced enough (this, of 
     language that essentially replicates the words of the 
     Civil Rights Act of 1964). Mr. Connerly says, ``Our 
     political system has more cowards per capita than at any 
     time in our history.'' Maybe. But Mr. Connerly is a 
     refutation of his own analysis.
       Let it be granted that it is a complicated and exasperating 
     issue. The tough language will probably continue on both 
     sides. Mr. Gingrich spoke, enthusiastically endorsing the 
     language of a previous speaker who described the current 
     situation as ``affirmative racism.'' Mr. Gingrich pledged to 
     pursue an end to it.
       Until now the colorblind point of view did not have a 
     credible high-profile national spokesman. That hurt their 
     cause and the national dialogue. Mr. Connerly, uniquely, has 
     the talent, passion, history and guts to become the champion 
     of the second side.

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