Press gives GOP a pass on its racist ties

By Stanley Crouch

John Ashcroft may become the first albatross that President-elect George W. Bush will have to cut from around his neck.

Ashcroft, Bush's nominee for attorney general, looks like a good candidate for the dead-bird role because, according to John Hickey, executive director of the Missouri Citizen Education Fund, he "has a history of reaching out to white supremacist groups." Missouri is Ashcroft's home state.

That's trouble -- or should be. But as we know, the media show an exceptional lack of interest in whether Republicans in high positions are connected to racist organizations. That was proved by how little was made of the case of Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., and the Council of Conservative Citizens.

Even attack columnists like The New York Times' Maureen Dowd, who could go on and on about Monica Lewinsky and "her boyfriend" President Clinton, weren't particularly upset by the Senate majority leader's being so chummy with an avowedly pro-white group.

I am particularly aware of how little the media cared about the Lott tale because I led a rather lonely crusade from late 1998 through the spring of 1999. I was hoping that Lott would be forced to answer certain questions whenever he appeared in public, which should have then alerted the Republican Party that it wasn't safe any longer to have those who are soft on racism in high positions for fear of -- should I say it? -- tarring the party at large.

But it was all for naught. Lott brushed off all questions and maintained his position. But at least he could say his most recent connection to the Council of Conservative Citizens had been in 1992. Ashcroft gave a 1998 interview to the quarterly Southern Partisan, praising the magazine for defending "Southern patriots" such as Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson and Jefferson Davis. Yikes.

Ashcroft is quoted as saying: "Traditionalists must do more. I've got to do more. We've all got to stand up and speak in this respect, or else we'll be taught that these people (Lee, Davis, et al.) were giving their lives, subscribing their sacred fortunes and their honor for some perverted agenda."

Like, perhaps, chattel slavery?

If Ashcroft were black and accused of anti-Semitic ties, Condoleezza Rice and Colin Powell would find it hard to get through a press conference without having to say what they thought of him and his views.

Ashcroft might not be bothered about this because he gave the commencement address at Bob Jones University in May 1999 in a ceremony that found him receiving an honorary doctorate.

The Southern Partisan interview in '98, Bob Jones in '99. Pretty hard to dismiss that as ancient history.

So if I were Bush, I'd be on the phone with brother Ashcroft right now, persuading him that in the interest of Republicans and Democrats alike, he should say that after long and deep contemplation he has decided it would be best for himself, his family and the nation to allow someone else to accept the nomination for attorney general.

Stanley Crouch is a columnist for the New York Daily News.

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