NAACP slams Bush's record

NEW ORLEANS — NAACP board chairman Julian Bond had harsh words on Sunday for President Bush's record in his first months in office, criticizing some of Bush's Cabinet choices and denouncing his faith-based initiative.

Bush is the 18th president that the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People has seen in its more than 90-year history.

"We've applauded them when they're right and condemned them when they're wrong," Bond said in an interview a day before his speech at the group's 92nd annual convention.

In remarks prepared for delivery Sunday, Bond especially assailed the civil rights records of Interior Secretary Gale Norton, a former Colorado attorney general, and Attorney General John Ashcroft.

"The president who promised to unite, not divide, chose as a secretary of the interior a woman who opposed racially equitable scholarships . . . she refused to defend her state's support of a business fairness program," Bond said in his prepared text.

And for the nation's top law enforcement officer, Bond said Bush chose "a man who doesn't believe in many of the civil rights laws he has sworn to enforce — affirmative action, racial profiling, hate crimes, voting rights."

An administration representative defended the president's choices.

"The president's Cabinet and staff are made up of accomplished and diverse individuals," including Secretary of State Colin Powell, Education Secretary Rod Paige, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice and Deputy Attorney General Larry Thompson, said Bush spokesman Jimmy Orr.

The administration's tax cut and its faith-based initiative, which would allow government funds to flow to churches, mosques and synagogues that seek to ease social woes, were also targets of criticism.

Bush has asserted that church-based groups receiving government funds should be able to refuse employment to people outside their religion, but critics, including Bond, contend that this could amount to government-funded discrimination.

Orr responded that Bush's "commitment to equal opportunity and equal justice is demonstrated with sweeping public school reform that fights to leave no child behind, proven help for the nation's poor with the faith-based and community initiative and his call for an end to racial profiling."

Bush was invited to address the gathering, which runs through Thursday, but he was unable to attend because of a scheduling conflict, NAACP officials said. Instead, he sent a videotaped greeting that will be played sometime during the convention.

In his remarks, Bond also referred to a five-year strategic plan that will be presented to delegates Wednesday. The plan calls for building the NAACP by boosting membership, increasing training, expanding the NAACP's legal staff and increasing advocacy.

The plan also seeks to sharpen the group's focus on civil rights enforcement and discrimination in the criminal justice system, increase economic opportunity, guarantee educational equity, register voters and take on a spectrum of health issues.

"We need to be much more aggressive," Bond said. "It's going to make us more efficient, which will make us quicker to respond."