George H.W. Bush: “Well, we've got some reservations, but I like the fact he's trying, and I like the fact other Senators are working with…”

“Well, we've got some reservations, but I like the fact he's trying, and I like the fact other Senators are working with him, because Republicans want a civil rights bill that eliminates, as best a bill can, discrimination in the workplace. I will repeat: They don't want a quota bill. And I, frankly, resent it when some of my political opponents up there--or put it this way, our political opponents up there charge me or charge Members of Congress who agree with me as having some kind of a political agenda here. I sent this bill up 2 years ago, or maybe year ago. Certainly when the winning political--the '92 political connotations. And so, I wish people would interpret things that way, because that's the way the facts are. But I haven't seen much defense of that, and I haven't seen much advocacy of our bill. I haven't seen anything that says what's wrong with our legislation. You know what my deal would be to these people? Look, if you really want an antidiscrimination civil rights bill and you're not happy with the President's, try it. Take four steps forward. You might not get all five you want; take four and see if it doesn't help eliminate discrimination in the workplace. But don't inflict the American people with something that inevitably, in the opinion of the Attorney General, our own counsel, and many of the staff people on the Hill lead to quotas. And that's what the issue is. And I get very hot under the collar when we get accused as a party or as an administration that doesn't care about the civil rights aspects of all of this. So, I'm going to keep talking about it and keep trying to be rational and keep trying to work with Congress constructively. We've got to do that to get a decent bill passed. But I am not going to sign a bad bill. Well, that's just one. We've got a lot of other issues that--I don't know how I got off on this diatribe here, because----”