Gore Talks to Rights Group, Avoids Challenge by Bradley

Al Gore was up to scaling Mt. Rainier, but on Saturday, the vice president didn’t take on a direct challenge from presidential campaign rival Bill Bradley on a racial issue.

In his first appearance since spending the week climbing Mt. Rainier with his 16-year-old son, Gore spoke to the annual Rainbow/PUSH convention in a speech rich with Clinton administration themes.

But he had no direct response to Bradley’s comments Thursday to the civil rights organization in which the former senator said Gore should help bring an immediate end to racial profiling--the targeting of minorities during traffic stops and airport searches.

Gore last month said putting a stop to racial profiling would be his “first civil rights act of the new century,” but Bradley said the vice president should push President Clinton to immediately sign an executive order banning such practices.

Gore did call for an end to arrests based on “hollow stereotypes” on Saturday, but did not directly address Bradley’s comments. In fact, the vice president has yet to publicly acknowledge Bradley as his opponent for the Democratic presidential nomination.

But Gore drew several standing ovations from the Rainbow/PUSH crowd of about 400 at the city’s lakefront McCormick Place, mentioning tax cuts for the poor, the Clinton-Gore “Patient’s Bill of Rights” and other such themes.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson, president of Rainbow/PUSH, had high praise for Gore, saying “his campaign and his quest will make America better,” but he said it’s still too early to commit his support to either Gore or Bradley.

Gore thanked the civil rights leader for comforting his family after the death last December of his father, Albert Gore Sr. The elder Gore, also a former Tennessee senator like his son, was a longtime supporter of civil rights and lost a reelection bid after backing the Voting Rights Act of 1965.