Brown’s Vow of ‘No Retreat’ Tests Clinton

President Clinton pleaded with California Democrats to be cool on affirmative action. “They (Republicans) want to get you in a screaming match,” he cautioned. “They win the screaming matches.”

But Assembly Speaker Willie Brown later screamed anyway, and so did other minorities at the party’s annual state convention. They shouted, “No retreat!” and proclaimed that the principle they are protecting is more important than the party.

“I said, ‘By the way, Mr. President,’ ” Brown regaled delegates at a luncheon, recalling a meeting with Clinton, “ ‘if you do decide to leave us on affirmative action, next time I see you on a bandstand, make sure you have a banjo rather than a sax.’ ” An aide said the Speaker’s reference was to the banjo-plucking, idiot Southern white kid in the movie “Deliverance.”

There were some gasps, but a lot of laughter.

U.S. Rep. Vic Fazio (D-West Sacramento), a party power in Congress, joined Clinton in pleading for pragmatism. He urged delegates to think of themselves more as members of the party than, say, of the African-American Caucus.

“It is time,” said Fazio, who is white, “that we put away the hyphen, put more time into the party than the caucus. . . . Please, let’s get our act together.”

But it was obvious from the tepid applause that this was not what many delegates wanted to hear. And for anybody who did, well, maybe this wasn’t the politically correct time to admit it.

It has become almost hackneyed to characterize warring political factions as fighting for the soul of the party . But that is precisely what is happening now within the Democratic Party over the dangerous and divisive issue of affirmative action.

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Speaker Brown is leading the fight against the initiative that would forbid preferential treatment based on race or gender in public hiring, contracting and student admissions. Polls show overwhelming public support for the initiative.

Many white Democratic leaders--including the President--privately are eager to place the initiative on the March primary ballot, where it would wreak less havoc with the party than in November. But that would require legislative action, and Brown and other minority lawmakers are refusing. This would be viewed within their communities as sanctioning the proposal, they say.

Clinton and other white males also talk of “fine-tuning” affirmative action to eliminate abuses. “We do have to ask ourselves,” Clinton told the delegates, “are (the programs) all worthy? Are they all fair? Has there been any kind of reverse discrimination? . . .

“I plead with you, stand up for affirmative action programs that are good, that work, but don’t do it in a way that gives them (Republicans) a cheap political victory.”

Many of the 3,500 delegates stood and cheered. But on the Speaker’s platform behind the President, Brown sat glumly.

Later, addressing delegates, Brown dismissed any idea of fine-tuning. “I am not interested at all in having people tell me there’s some way we can modify (affirmative action) to make it more palatable,” he shouted. “What we need to do is not pussyfoot on this issue. What we need to do is come face to face with it.”

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Brown’s present fighting mood contrasts sharply with his earlier posture of pragmatism.

In late January, Brown told some reporters that the initiative should be steered onto the March ballot. In an interview, he endorsed the idea of replacing the present system with socioeconomic preferences.

Brown also reported that a “goal” in pushing the speakership candidacy of Assemblyman Bernie Richter (R-Chico) was to achieve a Richter-sponsored affirmative action compromise. He said Richter had “credibility” as a leader of the initiative movement.

But last week Brown also told reporters, paraphrasing Ralph Waldo Emerson: “Consistency is the conduct of small-minded people.”

The Speaker has reconsidered and realizes it is his duty to forcefully oppose the initiative, an insider says. He believes the initiative can be beaten--maybe even kept off the ballot--by educating voters and by “embarrassing” potential supporters. That’s why he’s shouting, “Racism!”

Indirectly lecturing Clinton and other white Democrats, Brown asserted Saturday: “There is no place to shade, there is no place to dance, there is no place to fake it.”

Affirmative action already is a wedge issue, just as Republicans hoped. But the wedge now is splitting the Democratic Party--along racial lines--more than it is dividing the electorate.

White Democratic leaders have two options: Contest the minorities and rupture the party’s delicate coalition, or let the issue play out within the electorate. It really seems the choice has become lose now or lose later.