The Urban Bush League

From the Washington Post:

"I just don't want to offend them at this point," he said.

- National Urban League President Marc H. Morial response to the question "What is the Urban League's position on the civil rights agenda of the Bush administration?"

That's the kind of support you want before a big speech, right?

Of course, while I was away, the speech actually occurred. Rather than make two separate posts, I'll blend these together.

The speech itself seemed less to do with what Bush can do for them, and more with sowing seeds of doubt with the Democratic party. He talked alot about things he has done, but they are part of his general stump, and there is little new information there.

"Does the Democrat Party take African-American voters for granted? It's a fair question," Bush told the Urban League's annual convention. "I know plenty of politicians assume they have your vote. But did they earn it, and do they deserve it?"

Bush drew applause each time he ticked off one of his questions to the group: "Is it a good thing for the African-American community to be represented mainly by one political party?"

"Have the traditional solutions of the Democrat Party truly served the African-American people?"

"There is an alternative this year," Bush said. "Take a look at my agenda."

Now remind yourself of the quote above. Or you can recall these classic Republican moments:

In January 2003, Bush asserted that a program of racial preferences for minority applicants at the University of Michigan was "divisive, unfair and impossible to square with the Constitution." He took a position against the program in a Supreme Court case and did it on the birthday of civil rights hero Martin Luther King Jr.

The BET/CBS poll showed Bush's image still suffers among black voters for the 2000 election recount in Florida. More than four in five blacks believe Bush did not legitimately win the election, and two-thirds think deliberate attempts were made to prevent black voters' ballots from being counted, the survey found.

A Republican state lawmaker in Michigan stoked those resentments this month when he said the GOP would fare poorly in this year's elections if it failed to "suppress the Detroit vote."

You wonder why this party got outvoted by Gore 9-1 in the last presidential election?