Exclusive Interview: Conyers on vote reform, Bush nominees, Soc. Security

[rawstory]

Congressman who led electoral challenge plans reform, criticizes use of diversity as shield for Bush’s policies

This story: http://www.bluelemur.com/index.php?p=566

Full interview is forthcoming at: http://rawstory.com

By Larisa Alexandrovna and John Byrne | RAW STORY Staff

The Michigan congressman who spearheaded Ohio’s first electoral challenge discussed a broad swath of issues in an interview with RAW STORY Wednesday, outlining his future plans for voting reform and criticizing efforts to deflect criticism from President Bush’s cabinet nominees by focusing on the color of their skin.

Rep. John Conyers, Jr., the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, spoke about his efforts to investigate voting irregularities in Ohio. He also detailed his thoughts on issues currently facing Congress.

Conyers’ investigation produced the second electoral challenge of the presidential contest in history. The challenge, he says, has given new definition to his cause.

“We established the fact that we’re not taking these massive irregularities and violations of election law lying down anymore,” Conyers said.

The civil rights veteran who was the first to propose the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday in 1979 also expressed serious concern about attempts to use the ethnic diversity of Bush’s cabinet to deflect criticism of the president’s policy. He addressed Secretary of Education Rod Paige and nominees Condoleezza Rice and Alberto Gonzales as examples.

“I think now we have to examine more than just the color of an appointee we have to examine their record and their philosophy and where they’re going to take us,” he said. “Many thought that he should really step down way before the end of his term because of the way he was being ignored and diminished in his role as Secretary of State. I think that he did himself a great disservice by staying until the end of his term.”

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“Very few people can be fooled for long when the Secretary of Education denominates a teachers national union as a terrorist organization,” he said, speaking of Secretary Paige’s disparaging remarks about the union in February 2004.

Conyers called Rice a “Kissinger protege” who was going “to make Colin Powell look like a progressive.”

http://www.bluelemur.com/index.php?p=566

[rawstory]

1. singular kick

Know this *isn't* the best day to release such an interview...lol, but it's a great one. hope some folks will find this thread later on.