Senator Seeks Details on Nominee's '87 Speech
Saturday, June 18, 2005
Printable FormatTHE NEW YORK TIMES
By Carl Hulse
Senator Barack Obama says he may try to block the confirmation of a high-level nominee to the State Department out of concerns over racially insensitive comments attributed to her in the past.
Mr. Obama , Democrat of Illinois and the only African-American member of the Senate, said he was pressing to gain access to a background report by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and other records regarding the nominee, Henrietta Holsman Fore, the director of the United States Mint, who is President Bush's candidate to be under secretary of state for management. The position is the State Department's top human resources job.
While a trustee of Wellesley College in 1987, Ms. Fore, who ran a manufacturing business in California, gave a lecture at the school in which she described her difficulties keeping black assembly-line workers on the job; she was quoted as saying in a subsequent letter to the college newspaper that blacks would rather go ''back to the street to earn more money'' selling drugs. She later said the remarks were misconstrued and were meant to illustrate the problems of bringing diversity to the workplace. But she resigned as a trustee and apologized.
When questioned by Mr. Obama at her confirmation hearing on Thursday, she said she had resigned to protect the school's image during the student recruitment season.
''I made the statement in the context that what we had to do was fight these stereotypes,'' Ms. Fore said.
Mr. Obama , in a telephone interview on Friday, said his interest in this was ''just making sure that this whole controversy has been fully vetted and satisfactory answers have been provided.'' He said that if his concerns were not addressed, he might place a hold on the nomination or otherwise try to defeat it.
After the hearing, a State Department spokesman, Sean McCormack, called Ms. Fore a ''fine nominee'' and said the agency considered her the proper choice for the position.
Mr. Obama , who has discussed his concerns about the nomination with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, said he wanted to examine Ms. Fore's hiring record in the public and private sectors. He also wants her to meet with representatives of the Congressional Black Caucus and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.
''If this is a situation in which the statements that are attributed to Ms. Fore did not occur or were grossly misquoted, obviously we would act accordingly,'' Mr. Obama said. But he added that if she did make the statements, ''she has to explain how minorities working in the State Department or seeking employment in the State Department could feel confident she wouldn't be acting on the basis of stereotypes.''
Mr. Obama also said he hoped the White House would allow him access to the F.B.I. report and avoid the sort of fight over information that is taking place in the nomination of John R. Bolton to be ambassador to the United Nations. Democrats have filibustered that nomination as they seek access to intelligence documents that they consider relevant to Mr. Bolton's candidacy.