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June 24, 1996

THE POLITICS OF RACE & RELIGIOSITY!

by Staff Journalists, The Daily Republican Newspaper

Related News Stories:

  • Clinton Apology to Republican Leaders
  • Clinton Can't Get It Right - Whose Wrong?
  • Clinton's Vivid Memories of Burning Black Churches
  • Clinton Basic Honesty Challenged

    LITTLE ROCK DESK - Wiliam Jefferson Clinton is not widely known for his honesty. He claims the title for the politics of race.In a statement from the Old State House in Little Rock, reporters heard William Jefferson Clinton say in 1993 "Where I come from we know about race-baiting!" But, after bringing up the divisive race issue he promised not to predicate his campaign for the Presidency on the " politics of division".

    In the Primary campaign Clinton said of President Bush "Giving him four more years would be like hiring General Sherman for fire commissioner in Georgia! "In an earlier gaf, Clinton's infamous letter to Col. Eugene House about avoiding military service, Clinton described Vietnam as "A war I opposed and despised with a depth of feeling I had reserved solely for racism in America."

    In the middle of March Clinton joined a four-some of white cronies at the racially segregated Little Rock Country Club for a photo-op accompanied by nine TV cameras and crews.When challenged on this outing, Clinton's campaign manager accentuated the gaf with "We got cocky & we got sloppy! You wish it didn't happen, but its not the S&L crisis!"

    On June 13, at the Sheraton Washington Hotel when speaking before a summit conference of th Rainbow Coalition Lisa Willamson [Sister Souljah] a rapper from Los Angeles, said "I mean if black people kill black people every day, why not have a week and kill white people?"

    Clinton's next gaf was to insult the Rainbow Coalition rapper in front of the predominantly blak audience. Clinton said to the audience "If you took the words "white" and 'black" and reversed them, you might think David Duke was giving that speech!"

    Denying that the Sister Souljah attack was planned, Clinton's campaign manager, James Carville, admitted to reporters that "... the campaign wanted to bait a prominant African American" to distance itself from a lingering liberal fundamentalsim and to split the white vote.

    Once he was in the White House, Clinton said he would immediately began "eliminating welfare as we know it" saying that he rejected race-specific solutions to the problems of urban poverty. Clinton proposed capital punishment and supported "three strikes " mandatory life sentences for repeat offenders.

    In November 1993, at the Memphis Mason Temple Church of God in Christ, an exclusively black audience, the site of Dr. Martin Luther Kin's last sermon, Clinton promised funds for 100,000 new police officers across the nation.

    After Clinton was inaugurated he quickly moved to appoint Ron Brown to head the Clinton Commerce Department. Brown's resume included service as an 'arranger' and 'lobbyist' for the inhumane "Baby Doc" Duvalier, the Haitian dictator and oppressor of blacks.

    Meanwhile the Supreme Court has continued to erode federal affirmative action policies and programs. President Clinton says he is committed to affirmative action plans without quotas, no reverse discrimination, and no preferences for the unqualified.

    Last week, President Clinton appeared at a pre-arranged photo-op at a black church showing him in prayer and speaking to the congregation about racial motivated church burnings by white 'bigots'. On Saturday the President got on the radio and told the nation that black churches in the Southwere clearly racially motivated. "In our country during the '50s and '60s, black churches were burned to intimidate civil rights workers. I have vivid and painful memories of black churches being burned in my own state when I was a child."

    The radio broadcast deeply insulted his own home-state Democrats. They allege that Clinton has falsely accused Arkansans of torching black churches. After several Arkansans, including the state historian and leaders of several black organizations, disputed Clinton's "vivid and painful memories" of church burnings in Arkansas, Clinton decided to change his story.

    Clinton's Attorney General has assigned the FBI to the scene of the church fires. But, after two weeks of concentrated investigation, the Justice Department has only reported the annual records of church fires in the South is about average for this year.

    The FBI was able to arrest two black males on suspicion of arson in one recent black church fire. In another such fire, a juvenile had been placed in juvenile hall ion suspicion of staring a fire for non-racial reasons. Other than these, Justice has made no progress in finding any racial motivations for any of the black church fires that President Clinton told the nation were the result of racially motivated hatred.

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