Bush & Bigotry

One rather phenomonal thing about President Bush is the extent to which he has supported women and minorities in his appointments. Here, no less than Marty Peretz gives the old prez a huzzah on that count:

"I want to say something favorable about Bush again. It is this: He seems to me to have completely transcended the biases of gender and race in his appointments. Oh, he has his prejudices: He wants his appointees to be a certain sort of conservative. But no one can deny that he has broken the glass ceiling for women and blacks and Latinos in the executive and judicial branches. This is an embarrassment for Democrats who, like their present chairman, still attribute bigotry wholesale to Republicans. Well, Bush is a Republican who isn't bigoted: He has put his foreign policy in the hands and head of a female African American. This is not without some risk. Imagine the inner challenge to Saudis and other Arabs who encounter Condoleezza Rice as the plenipotentiary of the most powerful country on earth. You get an inkling of what that might feel like from the Arab saying that "a black face begins a black day." And just look at the proliferation of minorities among generals. These aren't presidential appointees, of course. Many of these decencies are the work of the hated Donald Rumsfeld."

Speaking of those appointments, did anyone else catch that Condoleeza Rice gave a piano recital the other night at the Kennedy Center. Apparantly she is quite an accomplished musician and she made the appearance as a favor to a disabled friend who was giving a recital. In passing, the reviewer noticed that her name is actually taken from the Italian musical notation to 'play sweetly'. Perhaps these are the types of things that we must find to praise in this administration, but praisworthy they are nonetheless! http://www.tnr.com/docprint.mhtml?i=20050627&s=diarist062705