Clinton Urged to Have Race Panel Hear Both Sides

House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) challenged President Clinton on Thursday to ensure that his advisory panel on race considers both sides of the affirmative action question by hearing testimony from a prominent foe of programs offering racial preferences.

“When did your call for a dialogue become a monologue?” Gingrich wrote to Clinton. “Is your panel interested in educating our citizens--or indoctrinating them?”

The White House, in turn, distributed copies of a letter that board chairman John Hope Franklin sent to Gingrich in July. In that letter, Franklin said, “We are interested in hearing about any activities or projects you undertake on topics related to race and reconciliation.”

White House aides did not know whether Gingrich responded to Franklin’s overture.

The Georgia Republican released his letter a day after the president’s advisory panel held a hearing on diversity on college campuses at which Franklin was quoted as saying he didn’t want to have a debate over affirmative action.

In response, Gingrich asked Clinton to step in and make sure the race panel hears from Ward Connerly, the driving force behind a California ballot initiative that bans the consideration of race in admissions to state colleges. He described Connerly, who is black, as a leader of a national movement and ridiculed the advisory panel for having become, in his eyes, a “liberal feel-good group” unwilling to listen to opposing views.