Over Quota on Playing Politics : Civil rights needs to be above partisanship

President Bush is becoming increasingly shrill, and even somewhat demagogic, on civil rights. He continues to divisively brand the chief proposal being weighed by Congress a “quota bill.” And, in a blast of revealing rhetoric, he has accused Democrats of doing what he’s out to do: “They wanted a political win. They wanted to grind me into the political dirt.” Let’s face it. Winning big in ’92 is really what this debate is about.

Bush is not the first President to play politics with the issue of race, and he probably won’t be the last. But his intense hardball is surprising, given his current popularity. He’s no Jesse Helms, the serially exploitative senator from North Carolina who had to raise the specter of whites losing jobs to blacks in the last election to stay in office. Political analysts suspect that Bush is trying to lay the groundwork for using “quotas” as an issue against the Democrats in his reelection campaign, much as he used the “crime” issue (remember Willie Horton?) in 1988. If so, that is not just cynical, but beneath the dignity of Bush’s office and almost certainly contrary to what he says are his convictions.

Not all Republicans, thankfully, are taking the low road on race. Sen. John C. Danforth of Missouri and eight other Republican senators, including the influential Warren Rudman of New Hampshire, have introduced their own Equal Employment Act in the form of three bills that would reverse the effect of several Supreme Court decisions that make it harder for women and minorities to prove job discrimination.

Danforth believes all Americans should be treated fairly in decisions about hiring and promotions. He is to be commended for leadership that should increase the chances of a civil rights bill becoming law this year.

Another Republican, Rep. Hamilton Fish Jr. of New York, also deserves credit for leadership. Fish, Democrat Jack Brooks of Texas and other lawmakers have crafted a compromise, HR 1, that would broaden protections against job discrimination for all Americans, including white men.

The measure is certainly no quota bill. It defines a quota as hiring or promoting a “fixed number or percentage of persons” from a particular group, then it specifically prohibits the practice. It would also allow a white man who suspects he has been discriminated against because of a quota to sue for damages.

HR 1 would also allow victims of discrimination based on gender, religion or disability to sue for punitive damages of up to $150,000. The limit offends some women because there is no such cap in racial cases. But even a limited amount is an improvement over current law, which allows no damages beyond back pay. It is also probably the best that Congress can do in this racially charged climate.

There is much common ground in the House bill, the Danforth package and the President’s own civil rights proposal--certainly enough areas of agreement to form the basis of a compromise.

Civil rights is neither a Democratic nor a Republican issue. It is an American issue.