Jeff Wice sends along the following from an NPR Interview with Ken Mehlman (on Ken Gordon show, April 1, 2005):

GORDON: Let me ask you this. When the president isn’t clear on what the voting rights extension is, when we see that both parties, quite frankly, had no clue during the vice presidential debates and, obviously, the presidential debates of the epidemic within the African-American community in this country, do you believe that, to a great degree, Washington is somewhat blind to issues of import to black America? And I’m not talking necessarily one particular party. I’m just talking about politicians in general.
Mr. MEHLMAN: Well, let me–I don’t agree necessarily with the premise, but I agree with part of the conclusion, and let me explain what I mean. With respect to the Voting Rights Act, the president was asked a question at the end of a meeting. The fact is the Voting Rights Act–one section of the Voting Rights Act expires and requires renewal. It’s Section Five; it involves redistricting. And it means that every 10 years when redistricting occurs the effect of redistricting cannot be to substantially diminish the majority minority district. So that, in other words, if you’ve got a district that’s 52 percent African-American, you can’t do redistricting, turn it into a 30 percent African-American district because that would reduce African-American representation. And the fact is that we look forward to working with both parties to make sure that’s renewed.
We have a Justice Department and a president that it totally committed to enforcing the Voting Rights Act. There’s that one section of the Voting Rights Act that requires renewal. The whole rest of it continues to go forward. So I think there was a–the president, at the end of a meeting, did not know–may not have known that specific legal and legislative point I just made. He is totally committed to voting rights and has proved it every single day.