ice President Al Gore yesterday plunged into South Carolina's racial politics debate, saying Texas Governor George W. Bush undercuts his claim to be a ''compassionate conservative'' by accepting support from a contributor who described the NAACP as the association of ''retarded people'' and then compounded the problem by apologizing to the mentally retarded.
''It's impossible to reconcile tolerating that kind of hatefulness'' with being a compassionate conservative, Gore said in an interview with the Globe.
And while Bush, the Republican front-runner, has avoided taking a position on whether the Confederate flag should continue flying over the South Carolina Capitol, Gore said the flag was a racist symbol and should be removed.
''It represents, for many Americans, a painful episode in our history that is recalled by some other Americans as a way of reaffirming their belief in racial superiority and support of discrimination,'' he said.
''A a result, I think the Confederate flag should be removed... and should not be used as a symbol of any institution that is supposed to be representative of and accessible to all of our citizens.''
Gore said he had not heard about South Carolina state Senator Arthur Ravenel's remark about the NAACP until yesterday when asked by a Globe reporter for a comment. Ravenel, a Charleston Republican and minor contributor to Bush, referred to the NAACP as the association of ''retarded people'' in remarks last Saturday at a ''save the flag'' rally. The South Carolinian later apologized to ''the retarded folks of the world for equating them to the national NAACP.''
Gore said, ''I can't imagine that kind of hatefulness being tolerated.''
