Politics And Double Standards

By Nancy Traver/Washington

The sentiment was laudable, but its source was a surprise. There, arguing for the nomination of a black attorney to the Federal Government's top civil rights position, sat South Carolina Republican Strom Thurmond, who had once declared, "There's not enough troops in the Army to break down segregation and admit the Negro into our homes, our eating places, our swimming pools and our theaters." His current rationale: "It seems to me that we ought to give this black man a chance. Years ago, minorities didn't have a chance."

Thurmond's astonishing plea for equal opportunity failed to sway a majority of the Democratic-controlled Senate Judiciary Committee. Twice the committee deadlocked, 7 to 7, on sending the nomination to the full Senate, effectively killing the appointment of William Lucas, 61, as Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights. Republican committee members denounced the votes as bigoted and based on a double standard. Lucas was turned down, said Attorney General Dick Thornburgh in an angry statement, as a "result of raw politics."

Was that really the case? During two days of hearings on his nomination, a coalition of civil rights organizations assailed Lucas for his lack of qualifications. The former FBI agent and Republican candidate for Governor of Michigan conceded that he "was new to the law." A practicing attorney for only two years, he had never tried a case, written a brief or argued an appeal. Most damaging, Lucas displayed a woeful ignorance of basic civil rights issues. Asked about the distinction between de facto (actual) and de jure (legal) segregation, Lucas drew a blank. "If it had been a white man who had been nominated who had the same background," said Alabama Democrat Howell Heflin, "he wouldn't have gotten anywhere. I think the fact that Mr. Lucas was black caused more consideration to be given to him."

Double standards have, in fact, played a role in the Judiciary Committee's handling of the Administration's choices for important Justice Department posts. In July, Robert B. Fiske, a New York lawyer, was forced to withdraw his nomination as Deputy Attorney General. Reason: conservative Republicans led by Thurmond complained that Fiske, a highly experienced prosecutor, was too liberal.

There was another element of hypocrisy in the Republican complaints. As Lucas' proponents are well aware, there is no such thing as an apolitical political appointment. The Bush Administration, which hopes to attract more black voters to the G.O.P., certainly had that goal in mind when it selected a black for the civil rights post. It has not ruled out giving Lucas a "recess appointment" to the job while Congress is out of session, which would allow him to serve until the end of 1990 without being confirmed. But if the Administration goes that route, it is sure to anger the Senate, endangering the President's future appointments and proposals. When the Senate returns after Labor Day, the President and his Attorney General face another firefight over the nomination of Clarence Thomas, the ultraconservative black chairman of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, to the federal appeals court in Washington. That battle might give Thurmond another opportunity to cast himself as a sanctimonious champion of civil rights.