White House Turns Up the Heat in Battle for Nominee

WASHINGTON — The White House began a campaign of public pressure Monday in a renewed effort to win Senate confirmation for Bill Lann Lee, President Clinton’s choice to be the nation’s chief civil rights enforcer.

Atty. Gen. Janet Reno, appearing at a ceremony marking the 40th anniversary of the Justice Department’s civil rights division, urged an end to the Senate deadlock that has kept Lee from taking charge of that unit. “Civil rights in America should not be about politics,” she declared.

In a clear reference to the Senate Republican leaders who have kept Lee’s nomination bottled up, Reno noted that “some say” his confirmation has been blocked as some sort of “payback,” while others suggest it is stalled because he shares Clinton’s support of affirmative action.

“I say no to that, and so does the president,” declared Reno, her voice rising.

The administration also has lent its backing to eight rallies being held around the nation today--including one in Los Angeles--which are aimed at building public support for Lee, who is on leave as the Western regional counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund in Los Angeles.

Last month, Senate Democrats delayed a vote on Lee’s nomination by the 18-member Senate Judiciary Committee rather than see it lose because of opposition from Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah), the panel chairman. Hatch said he came out against Lee because of the nominee’s longtime support of affirmative action and his continuing opposition to California’s Proposition 209, the initiative that outlawed such programs in state and local agencies.

With Congress in recess until January, the White House must either find a way to persuade other Republican committee members to break with Hatch, give Lee a “recess” appointment--which would require no confirmation but would last only through 1998--or abandon him, which administration officials have said they will not do. A recess appointment must be made by Jan. 27, before Congress goes back into session.

At Monday’s Justice Department event, Lee drew loud applause each time Reno and others mentioned him. He received a standing ovation when he was introduced.

Speaking to an audience of past and present Justice Department civil rights attorneys, Lee, 48, hailed the civil rights division for serving as “a constant guardian of the American dream. There is no higher calling.”

The division was founded in 1957, the same year federal paratroopers escorted nine black children into a segregated high school in Little Rock, Ark. The actual anniversary is today and will be commemorated at the pro-Lee rallies. Along with Los Angeles, gatherings are scheduled in San Francisco, Washington, Cleveland, Memphis, Detroit, New York and at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, Hatch’s hometown, a Justice Department spokesman said.

“We’re using the date to encourage action on Bill Lee’s nomination, either through a recess appointment or preferably through the Senate looking at it again,” said Stewart Kwoh, executive director of the Asian Pacific American Legal Center in downtown Los Angeles.

At the White House, officials maintained that the president still hopes to avoid a recess appointment, which would provoke an angry backlash from the Senate. Clinton “is interested in seeing if a public discussion of this issue can’t get members of the Senate to come to their senses,” said Mike McCurry, the White House press secretary.

Lee’s Republican opponents, however, contend it is the White House that has lost touch with public sentiment. They view the debate over the nomination as a public referendum on racial preferences, and they believe they enjoy widespread support in their opposition.