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Bush not strong on diversity

Newsday analysis of personnel records creates a snapshot of political appointees

By Tom Brune | Washington Bureau

August 30, 2004

WASHINGTON - At the national UNITY convention of minority journalists early this month, President George W. Bush repeatedly embraced diversity and proclaimed, "If you look at my administration, it's diverse, and I'm proud of that."

To illustrate his point, Bush painted a picture of being flanked in his office by Condoleezza Rice and Colin Powell as he dealt with terrorism and the war in Iraq, an image even Democrats concede is impressive and powerful.

But the Bush administration is not nearly as diverse as it appears in that picture, particularly when it comes to blacks and women, according to an analysis by Newsday of personnel records that created a snapshot of political appointees.

And Bush's overall record of diversity pales when compared to the standard set by his predecessor, President Bill Clinton, for filling the roughly 2,800 political posts that form a presidential administration.

Blacks held 7 percent of administration jobs under Bush, less than half of the 16 percent they held under Clinton, the snapshot shows. Women won 36 percent of Bush's appointments, noticeably fewer than the 44 percent of Clinton's.

Overall, the Bush administration gave more than half, 54 percent, of its political positions to white men. Clinton awarded 57 percent of his jobs to women and minorities.

A diverse cabinet

The snapshot does confirm Bush's claim that he has assembled the most diverse cabinet and top-level officials requiring Senate approval of any Republican president, creating a profile that nears the record-setting diversity of Clinton.

But it also shows that just below those highly visible positions -- in the hundreds of little known but important appointments to senior executive posts that don't need Senate confirmation -- the diversity of the Bush administration fades.

Under Clinton, women held 43 percent and blacks 13 percent of the senior executive posts, and 45 percent went to white men. Under Bush, women won just 24 percent and blacks 6 percent of the jobs, and 66 percent went to white men.

Take, for instance, the Department of Education, headed by Rod Paige, the black former chief of Houston's public schools, whose appointment Bush often mentions.

Paige's 18-member top-level team -- deputy secretary, undersecretary and assistant secretaries -- was quite diverse. A third were minorities and more than half women. Less than a quarter were white men.

But of his 22 senior executives -- chiefs of staff, deputy assistant secretaries and advisers -- only three, or 14 percent, were minorities and just a third women. And 60 percent were white men.

Those are among the findings from the first independent review to examine the claims of diversity by Bush and Clinton, based on an analysis of federal personnel records for September 2000 and September 2002.

Satisfied with numbers

The White House reviewed Newsday's data and said it found nothing anomalous and that it was comfortable with the numbers and ratios, spokesman Trent Duffy said.

"The president chooses those professionals who can best help him enact his agenda and give the American people the highest quality government that they deserve," he said.

At its convention in New York this week, the Republican Party is touting its black delegates, featuring minority speakers and highlighting the Bush cabinet. Yet the decision to press a claim to diversity appears contradictory to liberal civil rights activists and color-blind conservatives.

Liberal activists complain some cabinet secretaries who Bush highlights in his diversity pitch are overseeing the stalling, cutting or even dismantling of programs that aid minorities and women.

Last year, in a largely unnoticed major policy shift, the administration ended affirmative action for federal employment used since the 1980s by eliminating hiring goals for minorities and women.