Bush knocks affirmative action for people of color...
...while failing to explain why affirmative action for rich white boys whose daddies went to Yale is wrong

You might have seen this story this morning in the NYTimes ("Bush May Intervene in Affirmative Action Case"):

President Bush has asked administration lawyers to present him with a brief arguing that the University of Michigan's programs for using race in admission decisions go too far, officials said today.

...but you probably didn't see this priceless exchange between a reporter and White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer regarding how Bush himself benefited from admissions preferences. This reporter is, of course, referring to the long-standing practice (at schools like, say, Harvard and Yale) of granting "legacy" students--who on the whole are whiter, wealthier and more likely to be male than the average applicant--admission preference. Conservative support of legacy admissions reminds me of the bizarre argument that giving single moms money to help feed their kids is evil, while giving corporations handouts and bailouts and tax breaks is necessary to "stimulate" the economy.

Conservatives often claim that affirmative action and welfare "patronize" poor people and people of color by implying they can't pull themselves up by their own boot straps. So why don't corporations feel offended and patronized by corporate welfare? Why didn't Bush feel so offended by his legacy acceptance to Yale (despite his clearly inferior qualifications) that he rejected it? These are the questions that keep me awake at night...