BUSH ADMINISTRATION SAPS PREFERENCES

In an obscure May 8 “Statement of Administration Policy” on energy legislation, the Bush administration has, to the surprise of both left and right, announced its opposition to federal policies and contracting that take race into account.

According to Dana Milbank in his “Washington Notebook” column (it’s in the news pages but seems more like an editorial), this document makes clear “that government cannot consider racial diversity in admissions, grants and the like.”

This may be reading more into it, alas, than is there. Nevertheless, Edward Blum of the American Civil Rights Institute (Ward Connerly’s organization) says that as a result “I’ve put my picture of Bush back on the wall.” Responding the same way but to the opposite conclusion, Sen. John “Regime Change Begins at Home” Kerry wrote the president that “[i]t appears that with this SAP the administration is taking the position that even limited efforts to enhance the participation of underrepresented communities in government programs violate the Constitution.”

Both optimism and pessimism may be premature. As Roger Clegg of the Center for Equal Opportunity pointed out, last week the administration proposed highway legislation that included the same favortism for “socially and economically disadvantaged” groups that the energy SAP opposed.

With regard to racial preferences, it still seems to be the case that in this administration the right hand often doesn’t know what the other right hand is doing.

Say What?