KKK backing welcomed
Prop 2 leader says he'll take support wherever he can get it to end affirmative action.
Ronald J. Hansen / The Detroit News
Ward Connerly, the California man leading a ballot measure to end most affirmative action in Michigan, accepts Ku Klux Klan support for his position in a video clip posted this week on the Internet.
Connerly on Friday defended his remark in a statement, saying he accepts support for banning affirmative action wherever he finds it.
He said he does not support hateful activities.
But opponents of Connerly's Proposal 2 immediately seized on the clip as a sign that it would satisfy hate groups, not ensure equality.
In the 39-second clip posted on YouTube.com, Mark Bernstein of the Michigan Civil Rights Commission says Connerly's group has no support from notable civil rights groups.
"In fact just to illustrate how extreme and radical this group is," Bernstein says, "the only large organization that's endorsed the MCRI is the Ku Klux Klan."
Clip
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061104/POLITICS01/611040362