Thursday, June 23, 2005 | 11:04 a.m.
WASHINGTON -- Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., is delaying a vote on State Department post nominee Henrietta Holsman Fore until he has more clarification about controversial statements the Las Vegan made in 1987.
President Bush on May 10 nominated Fore, currently Director of the U.S. Mint, to be Undersecretary of State for Management, a nomination that needs Senate approval. The job includes overseeing State Department human resources.
Fore lived in Summerlin before taking the Mint job. Fore's business career included a stint as chairman of Stockton Products, a steel, cement and wire building material manufacturer with a plant in Las Vegas.
At issue are comments Fore made about minority factory workers during a speech at Wellesley College 18 years ago, when Fore was a factory manager.
According to a transcript, Obama questioned Fore at a June 9 Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Fore's nomination. He quoted a Feb. 12, 1987 New York Times article that described Fore's comments about factory workers.
Obama noted that the article reported that Fore had said black workers prefer dealing drugs to working in a factory.
Obama also quoted the newspaper as having reported that Fore had found Hispanic workers lazy, white workers resentful of having to work with machines and Asians, while productive, likely to move on to professional or management jobs.
Ultimately Fore resigned from the Board of Trustees at Wellesley as a result of the controversy caused by the comments.
At the June 9 hearing, Fore responded to Obama, saying the article contained misunderstandings. She said her hiring record proved that she oversaw workplaces that were without discrimination.
Of the comments, Fore said, "At that time, this was 1987 in Wellesley, it was a time of high emotions in the student body. And I was speaking to a class informally, and questions came up in the question and answer period which I responded to with a meaning that, we often are being stereotyped and what we as leaders and managers must do, is to overcome those stereotypes."
Mint spokeswoman Becky Bailey today said, like most nominees, Fore is not granting interviews until the confirmation process is over.
Obama sent a June 10 letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, requesting an FBI report on Fore's nomination, but has not yet received the report, an Obama spokesman said today.
Obama also asked for meetings between Fore and the Congressional Black Caucus and the Hispanic Caucus, which Fore has agreed to, the spokesman said. Obama is the only black senator and a member of the Black Caucus.
In the letter to Rice, Obama also asked for answers to 15 written questions about Fore's statements and her record of hiring and promoting minorities.
In the written questions, Obama asked Fore: "Is it in fact the case that every black worker that you hired left the company to go 'back to the street'?"
At the June 9 hearing, Obama noted that Fore had been approved by the Senate panel for two previous federal jobs, but that the issue of her comments had not been "fully" explored.
At a June 9 press briefing, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters he was familiar with Fore's comments.
"I think they center on a news story that's nearly 20 years old," he said, according to a transcript. "The nominee is a fine nominee and the right person for the job. We believe that. The secretary believes it."
Fore is willing to answer any questions about the "old news story," McCormack said.
A State Department spokesman today said the department's position has not changed. Rice looks forward to working with Fore and "hopes for a quick resolution," the spokesman said.
Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., supports Fore's nomination, Ensign spokesman Jack Finn said. But Finn added that Ensign now intends to meet with Fore to discuss her comments.
Finn said he did not know when Ensign first heard about the comments, which have been reported in the Chicago Tribune and New York Times in the last two weeks.
It is fairly common for a senator to ask for a little more time to evaluate a nominee, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., spokeswoman Tessa Hafen said.
Hafen said Reid "is aware of her comments and recognizes they are troubling remarks," and believes Obama has a reasonable request.
"Sen. Reid thinks it is completely appropriate to look into this a little bit more," Hafen said.
Fore previously was assistant administrator for Asia with the U.S. Agency for International Development.
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