NATO AIR
Senior Member
i think even liberals with common sense could accept bush's explanation... i'm glad they're talking now, and maybe pres. bush can begin to break the stranglehold liberal dems have on black voters
and they claim pres. bush isn't open-minded
and they claim pres. bush isn't open-minded
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A17010-2004Dec21.html
Departing NAACP Leader Has 'Man-to-Man' Talk With Bush
By Michael A. Fletcher
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, December 22, 2004; Page A11
President Bush and outgoing NAACP leader Kweisi Mfume met at the White House yesterday in what Mfume described as a frank, "man-to-man" discussion aimed at fixing the broken relationship between the president and the nation's oldest and largest civil rights organization.
Joined by the president's chief political strategist Karl Rove, Bush and Mfume spent much of the nearly 40-minute conversation discussing the strained relationship between Bush and the NAACP. Last summer, Bush pointedly declined an invitation to address the organization's national convention for the fourth consecutive year, calling his relationship with the group "basically nonexistent." The NAACP said Bush was the first president since Warren G. Harding who did not address the civil rights group while in office.
Mfume was invited to the White House last month after announcing his intention to step down after nine years as the NAACP's president and chief executive officer. Speaking to reporters, Mfume was careful to say that the private session -- which he had requested in a letter to Bush -- did not "constitute a meeting" between Bush and the NAACP. But, he said, he was hopeful the encounter could set the stage for "future dialogue between the NAACP and the White House."
In the past, Bush has said he refused to address the NAACP because of what he perceived as its unfair criticism of his policies, from his decision to invade Iraq to his opposition to many affirmative action programs. In yesterday's meeting, Bush said that he had refused to address the NAACP not because he feared a hostile reception from the group but because he thought such a reception would demean the presidency and embarrass the United States before the world, Mfume said. "That was something that was in his gut," Mfume said.
Scott McClellan, Bush's press secretary, called the meeting an extension of the president's policy of working with people willing to work with him. "The president and Mr. Mfume have had a good relationship in the past," McClellan said, "and this meeting is an opportunity to talk about how we can work together in the future on shared priorities."
During the talk, Mfume said, Bush sought his advice on a number of issues, "particularly issues affecting race in this country."
Julian Bond, the NAACP's board chairman, issued a statement saying he welcomed the discussion. Bond previously has been sharply critical of Bush and many Republicans -- who he once said "draw their most rabid supporters from the Taliban wing of American politics. " Earlier this year, the IRS launched an investigation into whether those remarks by Bond violated the NAACP's tax-exempt status.
"After being shut out of the White House for four years, we look forward to discussion about our differences -- and even agreement when our agendas intersect," Bond said in his statement.
The president met with Mfume before traveling to Walter Reed Army Medical Center's Fisher House, where Bush visited wounded soldiers and their families. Later in the afternoon, Bush left for Camp David, where he is to scheduled spend Christmas.
© 2004 The Washington Post Company