November 2, 1971
Page 38719
SENATOR MUSKIE'S CANDOR
(Mr. LEGGETT asked and was given permission to extend his remarks at this point in the RECORD and to include extraneous matter.)
Mr. LEGGETT. Mr. Speaker, the Junior Senator from Maine, EDMUND MUSKIE, recently met with a group of black political leaders in my State of California. During the course of their discussion, they asked him about the possibility of a black vice presidential candidate on his
ticket in the event he obtained the Democratic nomination for President. The conventional response would have been for the Senator to assure them that his mind was completely open to the possibility. He could have said this despite the fact that his mind was not open, due to his conviction that a ticket containing a black vice presidential nominee could not be elected. He would thus have avoided ruffling the black leaders, and when the time came he could simply have proceeded to pick a white running mate.
Instead, he chose the more difficult but more honest course. He told them he would not choose a black running mate because such a ticket could not win. As a consequence of his honesty, he has received a good deal of criticism.
In my view, the criticism is not justifiable. It is not justifiable from the black spokesmen, who are surely aware that Mr. MUSKIE was stating a political fact of life at this time: A very unfortunate fact, a fact hopefully on its last legs, but a fact nevertheless. I am surprised and disappointed that the black leaders have shown this preference for evasion over honesty.
It is not justifiable from the other contenders for the Democratic nomination, none of whom are going to choose a black running mate either.
Senator MUSKIE's record on voting rights, education, civil rights, and racial matters in general is impeccable. It is, therefore, particularly inappropriate, unjustified, and hypocritical that his statement should be criticized by the Nixon administration which has attempted to appoint racists and segregationists to the Supreme Court, has cooperated in the disenfranchisement of blacks in the Deep South, and has generally attempted to sell blacks down the tubes at every opportunity and to undo the racial progress the country has made in the past decade.
I insert at this point in the RECORD an editorial from the Willows, Calif., Daily Democrat entitled "We Admire Muskie's Candor."
WE ADMIRE MUSKIE'S CANDOR
In the opinion of Sen. Edmund Muskie a white Presidential and a black Vice-President nominee is not electable in the U.S. in 1972.
For being so honest in expressing his own judgment, Senator Muskie is being criticized not only by Republican party leaders but by a few Democrats who are openly aspiring to the presidency.
Perhaps the Senator exercised poor political judgment for being so candid, but we admire his frankness. None of those who are censuring him for what he said can prove that he is a racist. The Senator's record on that score is clear. And that is more than some of his critics can say for themselves.
Those who are attacking the Democratic Senator are playing for the Negro vote. But the average black voter is not so easily deceived and swayed. He knows that Muskie is unbiased and unprejudiced and would not object to having a Negro running mate if he were convinced that the ticket would succeed at the polls.
The contemptible things there are being said about Muskie's remark do not distract from the fact that Muskie's reply was the self-evident truth.
The Republican and Democratic spokesmen who are trying to take political advantage of the Senator's candor are hypocrites. He was brave and spoke the truth, knowing that it was a political risk for himself.
In fact, he might have inspired a public reaction that will eventually make it possible for a white presidential nominee with a black running mate to be elected to the White House. This would be an historic achievement for Senator Muskie.