Politics

Utah Senator Apologizes

August 24, 1999 / 11:16 AM EDT / AP

Sen. Bob Bennett said he didn't mean to offend anyone when he predicted that George W. Bush will be the GOP presidential nominee unless "some black woman comes forward with an illegitimate child that he fathered."

"When I make a mistake, it's a beaut," Bennett, R-Utah, said after a private meeting with civil rights leaders. "There's no question this was a mistake. I had no intention of offending anyone."

Bennett had said he regretted making the "clumsy" remark to the editorial board of the Standard-Examiner newspaper in Ogden Aug. 13. Bennett said he was thinking of the movie Primary Colors and its portrayal of a fictional Southern governor's womanizing.

"Unless George W. steps in front of a bus or some woman comes forward, let's say some black woman comes forward with an illegitimate child that he fathered within the last 18 months, or some other scenario that you could be equally creative in thinking of, George W. Bush will be the nominee," Bennett told the newspaper.

"It was simply a clinical description of the state of politics in America, but it was not received that way, and I should have been smart enough to realize it probably would not be received that way," Bennett said.

"We told him that was a very poor excuse," Jeanetta Williams, president of the NAACP's Salt Lake City branch, said after meeting with Bennett.

"Only Sen. Bennett can give you a clear explanation about what was in his mind," said Edward L. Lewis Jr., president of the NAACP's Utah, Idaho and Nevada branch.

Leaders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People also are upset with comments made by Utah's other Republican senator, Orrin Hatch.

"People of color can't do anything about their color," Hatch said recently. "But I do believe gay people have a choice to live within the legal rules or not. It's up to them, they do have a choice, where an African-American has no choice with regard to the color of their skin."

Williams and Lewis criticized Hatch for contrasting gays and blacks in terms of civil rights.

"We do not equate being gay or being lesbian with 300 years of slavery and being black in America. It is not the same thing," Lewis said. "However, we do feel that everyone should have their civil rights."

Hatch was hosting a golf tournament and was not immediately available for comment Monday. His spokeswoman, Heather Barney, said Hatch has "done an awful lot for the minorities' communities and he takes his responsibilities very seriously in representing everyone in Utah."