Bush Administration's Voting Rights Chief Apologizes
Posted by Stephanie Taylor on October 29, 2007 at 04:22 PM
Earlier this month, Bush administration voting rights division chief John Tanner created a firestorm when he said that "minorities don't become elderly the way white people do: They die first." He made the remarks before the National Latino Congreso, while trying to argue that voter ID laws discriminate against white people--because white people (in his opinion) are a disproportionate percentage of the elderly population.
He has now apologized for the remark. From TPMmuckraker:
In the letter, Tanner does not recant his analysis that voter ID laws actually discriminate against whites, but does apologize that his "explanation of the data came across in a hurtful way." Others who worked in the Justice Department, of course, including Toby Moore, a former redistricting expert in the section who will be testifying alongside Tanner tomorrow, disagreed with more than his tone.
Interesting that he sees this merely as a "poor communication" problem--while his own co-workers say he's "cherry-picking the data."
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