Bush must stand up to liberals

George W. Bush can do only one thing to satisfy the NAACP: Resign.

President Bush "has selected nominees from the Taliban wing of American politics," NAACP chairman Julian Bond told the civil rights group's New Orleans convention on July 8. "He has appeased the wretched appetites of the extreme right wing. And he has chosen Cabinet officials whose devotion to the Confederacy is nearly canine in its uncritical affection."

• He appointed America's first black secretary of state, Colin Powell.
  Condoleezza Rice, also black, is national security adviser. Earth to Bond: Black people run U.S. foreign policy.

• Bush's education secretary, Rod Paige, is black, too. While the president should have prevented Congress from transforming his education initiative into a spending bonanza, Bush's critics cannot realistically accuse him of defunding ghetto schools and defenestrating minority students.

• Bush reappointed Roger Gregory — a black, Democratic Clinton nominee — to the federal appellate court. Conservatives complain that Bush should have embraced Gregory only after Democrats greenlighted several Bush candidates. Still, what kind of pro-Confederate president would give a black Democrat a federal judgeship?

• Bush hosted the all-Democratic Congressional Black Caucus in the Cabinet Room on Jan. 31. "They had a warm meeting," White House assistant press secretary Anne Womack told me. "It was scheduled for 30 minutes and actually lasted nearly an hour."

• Bush instructed Attorney General John Ashcroft to find a way to end racial profiling (without, one hopes, preventing cops from legitimately pursuing crooks of color).

• Bush acceded to the demands of the Revs. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton that the Navy end live-ammunition training at Puerto Rico's Vieques Island. Pro-military Republicans angrily denounced this obvious pander to black and Hispanic liberals. They, in turn, screamed more loudly than ever to stop the bombing NOW! — not in 2003, as Bush proposed.

• To promote his faith-based initiative, Bush has visited black congregations across America. He spent the Fourth of July at a church-sponsored block party in downtown Philadelphia, where he hugged gospel singers and played touch football with black children.