White House Broke Law Wooing Blacks

The Clinton White House, in its electionyear preoccupation with winning ethnic-group support, drew up a plan that said Republicans should be portrayed as “enemies of civil rights” because many blacks were unenthusiastic about Democrats, according to documents released Friday.

The plan to firm up the black vote, as well as another for wooing voters with disabilities, was prepared partly at taxpayer expense, which is illegal.

After the violation was discovered earlier this month, White House special counsel Lanny Davis said, the Clinton campaign reimbursed $917 for the improper use of a White House computer.

The black-voters plan was part of a White House effort, outlined in the documents, to woo ethnic and religious groups, including Asian-Americans, Latinos and Jews, among others.