Gore Tackles Race Issue With Entry Into Flag Fray

NASHUA, N.H. —  Calling for greater racial harmony, Vice President Al Gore on Saturday excoriated Texas Gov. George W. Bush for not opposing the display of the Confederate flag over South Carolina’s state capitol, accusing the GOP presidential front-runner of “playing” to supporters who hold “hateful attitudes.”

Wading full stride into a controversy that has roiled the Republican campaign, Gore, a former senator from Tennessee, said unequivocally that the Confederate flag should be banished from all public buildings.

Scott McClellan, a Bush spokesman, responded bluntly: “Al Gore should begin by disavowing the divisive, hateful remarks of his own campaign manager instead of distorting Gov. Bush’s proven record of inclusiveness and strong support from all walks of life. Gov. Bush is running, as he always has, an inclusive campaign that brings people together.”

McClellan noted that exit polls showed that Bush attracted nearly half of the Latino vote and more than a quarter of the African American vote when reelected governor in 1998.

During an interview on CNN’s “Both Sides With Jesse Jackson,” Gore described the flag as the embodiment of “a hurtful message for many Americans that recalls the pain of slavery.” Many of the flag’s supporters say it is merely a symbol of Southern pride and heritage.

Bush, who faces a strong challenge in South Carolina from Sen. John McCain of Arizona, has doggedly refused to take a position on the flag controversy--a perennially divisive issue in the Palmetto State--saying that the flag’s fate is up to South Carolinians. McCain also said the state’s residents should decide the issue but has described the flag as a symbol of racism and slavery.

Gore, referring to the Texas governor, said: “I think he’s worried about alienating some supporters. . . . And some of the active Republican supporters down there have expressed some of what I regard as very hateful views toward the NAACP, toward African Americans.”

Some people, Gore contended, “actually like it on public buildings because, to the minorities, they want to express views of racial superiority and support for discrimination.”

In an interview published Saturday by the Boston Globe, Gore also lambasted Bush for not rejecting the support of Arthur Ravenel Jr., a South Carolina GOP state senator who described the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People as an association of “retarded people” during a recent “save the flag” rally.

Ravenel later was quoted as having apologized to “the retarded folks of the world for equating them to the national NAACP.”

Gore said Bush undercuts his claim to be a “compassionate conservative” by not denouncing Ravenel’s remarks.

In a debate of GOP presidential contenders Saturday, former ambassador Alan Keyes asked Bush to join him in repudiating Ravenel’s remarks, and Bush agreed the comments were insensitive.

The flag issue flared last week in Bush’s home state as well, with the Texas NAACP requesting that Bush support their efforts to remove a plaque in the Texas Supreme Court building that bears the image of the Confederate flag. McClellan said there were no plans to remove the plaque, saying it reflects Texas’ history of having once been a part of the Confederacy.

“We’re a diverse state and we’re proud of that diversity,” McClellan said. “We certainly hope people aren’t trying to politicize this in the context of the presidential campaign. To our knowledge, it has never been brought to our attention before.”

The vice president’s remarks on race and diversity came as the nation prepared to celebrate Martin Luther King Day on Monday. In New Hampshire, it will be the state’s first observance of the holiday.

Gore is scheduled to speak Monday in Atlanta, at the Ebenezer Baptist Church, where King once preached. The vice president was invited there by Coretta Scott King, widow of the slain civil rights leader.

In several different contexts, the issue of race has figured prominently in recent days in the Gore campaign.

For one, Gore’s opponent for the Democratic presidential nomination, former Sen. Bill Bradley of New Jersey, in an interview last week in the Boston Herald blamed Gore for having raised an issue in 1988 that Republicans later exploited against the Democratic Party standard-bearer, Massachusetts Gov. Michael S. Dukakis.

Gore had questioned a furlough program in that state in which 11 prisoners never returned and two of them later committed heinous crimes. One of them was Willie Horton, a black man, who then raped a woman.

Supporters of then-Vice President George Bush later made a devastating--and controversial--ad exploiting the Horton case.

Gore has said that he never specifically mentioned the Horton case, and Dukakis has defended Gore from Bradley’s attack.

In a second racially tinged controversy, Gore on Saturday again defended his campaign manager, Donna Brazile, who is black, for having said that Republicans generally do not care enough about the plight of black children.

“I think what Donna Brazile said was factually true--that the Republican Party does not have an agenda that is supported by, and helpful to, African Americans,” Gore said. “She just stated the truth.”

He added: “The Republican Party has not really come up with any effective plan or proposal that would help our nation speed up the arrival of the days when we have equality of opportunity in our country.”

GOP leaders, including presidential candidates Steve Forbes and Gary Bauer, have called Brazile’s comments unwarranted and racially divisive and called on Gore to fire her.

In response to a question by Jackson on the television show, Gore denounced racial profiling by government agencies, saying the practice is all too prevalent.

“We have an awful lot of work to do in law enforcement agencies all around the country,” Gore said.

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Times staff writer T. Christian Miller contributed to this story.