George Bush: The Unauthorized Biography - Get a Free Blog

that his quarrel was not with the entire bill, but rather with two specific provisions, which
he claimed had not been a part of the original draft, but which he hinted had been added
to placate violent black extremists. According to his statement of March 17, "Bush
pointed out that the original Kennedy Civil Rights bill in 1962 did not contain provisions
either for a public accomodations section or a Fair Employment Practices Commission
(FEPC) section." "Then, after the hot, turbulent summer of 1962, when it became
apparent that in order to get the Civil Rights leaders' support and votes in the 1964
election something more must be done, these two bad sections were added to the bill,"
according to Bush. "I suggest that these two provisions of the bill-- which I most heatedly
oppose -- were politically motivated and are cynical in their approach to a most serious
problem." But soon abandoned this hair-splitting approach, and on March 25 he told the
Jaycees of Tyler "I oppose the entire bill." Bush explained later that beyond the public
accomodations section and the Fair Employment Practices Committee, he found that "the
most dangerous portions of the bill are those which make the Department of Justice the
most powerful police force in the Nation and the Attorney General the Nation's most
powerful police chief."
When Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts delivered his maiden speech to the Senate in April
of 1964, he included a passage referring to the late John F. Kennedy, saying that the dead
President had believed that "we should not hate, but love one another." Bush lashed out at
Kennedy for what he called "unfair criticism of those who oppose the Civil Rights bill."
In Bush's interpretation, "Kennedy's dramatic, almost tearful plea for passage of the bill
presented all those who disagree with it as hate mongers." "The inference is clear," Bush
said. "In other words, Ted Kennedy was saying that any one who opposes the present
Civil Rights bill does so because there is hate in his heart. Nothing could be further from
the truth. This is not a question of hate or love, but of Constitutionality." Bush "and other
responsible conservatives" simply think that the bill is politically inspired. "This bill,"
Bush said, would make further inroads into the rights of individuals and the States, and
even provide for the ultimate destruction of our trial by jury system. We simply feel that
this type of class legislation, based on further federal control and intervention, is bad for
the nation." "Bush said the Civil Rights problem is bascally a local problem, best left to
the States to handle." Here surely was a respectable-sounding racism for the era of Selma
and Bull Connor.
Bush was provided with new rhetorical ammunition when Alabama Governor George
Wallace ventured into the presidential primaries of that year and demonstrated
unexpected vote-getting power in certain northern states, using a pitch that included
overtly racist appeals. In the wake of one such result in Wisconsin, Bush campaign issued
a release quoting the candidate as being "sure that a majority of Americans are opposed
to the Civil Rights bill now being debated in the Senate." "Bush called attention to the
surprising 25% of the Wisconsin primary vote received by Governor George C. Wallace
of Alabama," said the release. In Bush's view, "you can be sure this big vote was not cast
for Wallace himself, but was used as a means of showing public opposition to the Civil
Rights Bill." "If a flamboyant Governor Wallace can get that kind of a vote in a northern
state such as Wisconsin, it indicates to me that there must be general concern from many