Senate Panel Rejects Lucas as Rights Chief

In a sharp setback for the Administration, the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday rejected the controversial nomination of William Lucas as assistant attorney general for civil rights and refused to allow the full Senate to vote on the appointment.

After an unusually rancorous debate, punctuated by charges of racism from Republican supporters of Lucas, who is black, the committee split 7 to 7 on both votes. Among Democrats on the panel, only Sen. Dennis DeConcini of Arizona broke party ranks to vote for Lucas.

Action Denounced

Atty. Gen. Dick Thornburgh denounced the committee’s action as “raw politics” and Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.) urged President Bush to put Lucas in the job anyway after the Senate begins its summer recess later this week. Under Senate rules, such “recess appointments” can remain in effect for the rest of a congressional session--in this case, until the end of 1990.

White House Press Secretary Marlin Fitzwater said that “we’re now exploring our options” and that no decisions had been made about Lucas’ future. Deputy White House Press Secretary Alixe Glen said that “the Administration isn’t throwing in the towel” on Lucas.

But a senior Administration official discounted chances that Lucas would be appointed to the post in an acting capacity.

The defeat came as a stinging embarrassment for Bush and for Thornburgh, and illustrated the Administration’s limits in dealing with a Congress in which Democrats dominate both houses and conservative Republican critics also hold influential positions.

Earlier this year, Bush’s first choice as defense secretary, former Texas Sen. John Tower, was rejected on the Senate floor, and last month Robert B. Fiske Jr., Thornburgh’s choice for deputy attorney general, withdrew his name from consideration to avoid a prolonged fight with conservative Senate Republicans.

David Runkel, a spokesman for Thornburgh, said of the civil rights post: “There’s no other candidates as of today.”

Lucas’ supporters praised him as an experienced law enforcement official and county executive who had climbed out of the ghetto and who understood civil rights because of his own experience.

But his foes contended that, although he has a law degree, he showed scant knowledge of civil rights law and cited his own testimony of being “new to the law.” They also charged that he lacked a strong commitment to civil rights, seemed insensitive to appearances of conflict of interest and is not a skilled manager.

‘Agonized’ on Decision

Sen. Howell Heflin (D-Ala.), a crucial swing vote in the contest, said that President Bush called him last Thursday urging that he support Lucas. He said he “agonized” before deciding to provide the seventh vote against the nominee.

Heflin said in an interview that he jotted down pros and cons on Lucas on Monday night after meeting with the nominee for 45 minutes, drafted statements for and against him and then made his decision.

“I wanted to do right by him . . . and the President is entitled to his appointments,” Heflin said. “But it came through that this man would not really run this office and that somebody else over there (at the Justice Department) would do it and he would be more of a parrot than a rooster running it.”

Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.), chairman of the Judiciary Committee, accused the Administration of practicing “cynicism in the extreme” by nominating Lucas, whom he described as “a black man” who “demonstrated he knew nothing about the (civil rights) law.

“Bill Lucas was asked fundamental questions” about recent Supreme Court decisions that civil rights groups regard as sharp setbacks, Biden said. “Bill Lucas couldn’t answer.”

Sen. Strom Thurmond (R-S.C.), once an avid segregationist, hailed Lucas as “a black man who has proven himself” and asked his Senate colleagues: “Why not give him a chance? All he’s asking for is a chance.”

Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) denounced retired Wayne County, Mich., Circuit Judge Victor J. Baum as “an idiot.” Baum testified in opposition to Lucas, citing a unanimous ruling to hold him in contempt for his failure to take steps ordered by the court to reform a jail under Lucas’ supervision when he was Wayne County sheriff.

Baum’s testimony and his court’s ruling was cited by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), Heflin and other Lucas critics. Calling Baum “a political antagonist for years” of Lucas, Hatch added: “It’s well known in Detroit that that judge is no friend of Bill Lucas.”

DeConcini, the sole Democrat to vote for Lucas, said that the nominee had experienced “worse poverty than any of us can imagine” and called him “a product of what the civil rights movement was all about.”

But Kennedy, whose late brother Robert as attorney general recruited Lucas to a Justice Department post in 1962, said that Lucas “is the wrong man for this very important job.”

“In many respects, Mr. Lucas’ life represents the embodiment of the progress America has made toward equal opportunity for all citizens,” Kennedy said. “But if we are ever to achieve that elusive goal, we must insist that the person who is chiefly responsible for enforcing our civil rights laws is well suited to perform that task.”

Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) contended that the opposition to Lucas was trying to “reverse the last election.” He said that Lucas’ shortcoming is that he is “a black conservative Republican. Worse yet, a Democrat turned Republican, and that’s why he’s in trouble.”

Thornburgh Blamed

The defeat of Lucas’ nomination prompted criticism of Thornburgh by a senior Administration official who said: “We kind of got backed into this by Thornburgh anyway.”

Lucas, as Thornburgh’s choice, won out over Evan Kemp, an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission member favored by White House counsel C. Boyden Gray. “If there is any blame to be had in this thing, he (Thornburgh) ought to at least take part of it,” said the official, who declined to be identified. “He’s been nowhere to be seen the last week. He saw the guy going down and jumped ship on him.”

However, this was disputed by spokesmen for the White House and Justice Department, who said that Thornburgh had been talking to members of the Senate committee on Lucas’ behalf over the last week and a half.

In defending Fiske, the other Justice Department nominee whose bid for a top post recently failed, Thornburgh mounted a heavy lobbying effort but could not win over Senate conservatives who were unhappy with Fiske’s role as chairman of the American Bar Assn.’s committee on judicial nominations. That panel had opposed some of the Ronald Reagan Administration’s most controversial judgeship candidates.

Staff writers Jack Nelson and David Lauter contributed to this story.