Jackson Says Bush ACLU Attack Aims at Rights Groups

The Rev. Jesse Jackson on Saturday urged his supporters to vote for fellow Democrat Michael S. Dukakis, calling Republican George Bush “dangerous and mean-spirited” and condemning Bush’s remarks about the American Civil Liberties Union.

“You see, Mr. Bush, you call people who fight for liberty subversive,” Jackson said in remarks to about 1,000 people at a voter registration rally at Operation PUSH headquarters. He said the Republican presidential nominee was on an “ugly and mean side of history.”

He said Bush’s attacks on the organization are “a back-handed swipe at the entire civil rights community, not just the ACLU. . . . “

He also took Bush to task for the vice president’s comments during last Sunday’s debate that many of the nation’s homeless people “are mentally sick.”

“Bush assumes the homeless are homeless because something is wrong with them emotionally,” Jackson said, calling that “a contemptuous way the rich look down at the poor.

“I would remind Mr. Bush that Christmas, which we celebrate not far from now, is not about big gifts for rich friends, it is not about Santa Claus and reindeer. Christmas, Mr. Bush, is about a homeless couple.”