AP News, September 15th, 2007
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton pledges to expand federal hate crime laws and use an independent board to review Justice Department attorney hiring.
That's according to a slate of proposals she was expected to talk about during a speech to the NAACP on Saturday night.
The New York senator will focus on the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, including adding to its budget, as part of an effort to "undo the damage done under President Bush and Attorney Generals (sic) Gonzales and Ashcroft," according to a campaign document.
Clinton planned to discuss civil rights, workplace discrimination and hate crimes legislation in her speech at the Charleston NAACP's 91st Annual Freedom Fund Banquet.
Clinton, rival Barack Obama and other presidential candidates are heavily courting the black vote as they trek through this early voting state. Nearly half the voters in the 2004 Democratic presidential primary here were black.
Clinton said in a statement issued by her campaign that her administration would seek to rebuild the Justice Department's traditional role in defending civil rights and to review charges of improper, politically motivated hiring to determine whether any laws were broken.
In the statement, she accused the Bush administration of driving the Civil Rights Division "toward an agenda driven by partisanship, cronyism, and ideology" and cited media reports that state political appointees have dominated the hiring process under Bush.
Last month, Assistant Attorney General Wan J. Kim, the Justice Department's top civil rights enforcer, resigned after more than a year of criticism that his office filled its ranks with conservative loyalists instead of experienced attorneys.
The Justice Department said his office had set record levels of civil rights enforcement.
Clinton's other proposals include combatting voter ID laws, letting ex-felons who have completed their sentences regain their right to vote and making Election Day a federal holiday to make voting easier. She said she would press for Washington, D.C., to get a seat in the House of Representatives.
Clinton also is proposing an expansion of federal hate crimes legislation to include crimes committed against people based on their gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability.
