to this report.

WASHINGTON -- In a blunt break from standard liberal dogma, Sen. John Kerry said last night that an excessive focus on ineffectual affirmative action programs has helped foster a culture of dependency among residents of the inner city and cost the civil rights movement its vital multiracial consensus.

In a prepared speech delivered at Yale University in New Haven, Kerry said the government should fully finance the popular Head Start preschool program, boost its commitment to prenatal care and infant nutrition and guarantee the opportunity to attend college to every high school graduate.

But these and other government programs will wither, and citizens of all races will ...