MICHAEL WINSHIP: WHEN BUSH COMES TO SHOVE, RECESS APPOINTMENTS
BuzzFlash, IL
Feb 6 2007
A Buzzflash Guest Contribution
by Michael Winship
Warren Bell is a funny guy. He has worked on television sitcoms like
"Coach" and "According to Jim," starring Jim Belushi. Nevertheless,
Warren Bell is a funny guy.
He wrote what he thought were entertaining but decidedly politically
incorrect musings on the Web site of the conservative journal National
Review. In one, he made a crack about Nancy Pelosi leaving a stain
on his shirt, for which he has since apologized.
In another entry, he declared, "I am thoroughly conservative in ways
that strike horror into the hearts of my Hollywood colleagues… I
support a woman’s right to choose what movie we should see, but not
that other one. I am on the Right in every way." Other submissions
have a similar, poke-in-the-eye-with-a-blunt-stick attitude.
Whether this qualifies Warren Bell for membership on the board of the
Corporation for Public Broadcasting is debatable at best. No matter.
He has TV experience, gave a few thousand bucks to Republican
candidates, including George W. Bush, and the president saw fit
to appoint him to the board, even though Bell confessed he wasn’t
conversant with public broadcasting’s programming, favoring sports
radio over NPR.
National Public Radio’s understandably peevish response: "As far as
we can tell," spokeswoman Andi Sporkin said, "Mr. Bell only brings
a history of questionable comments about women, minorities, and
the media, and no discernible relevant achievement, involvement,
or commitment to public broadcasting."
Yet despite concerns that he’ll be another right-winger along the
lines of Ken Tomlinson, the former CPB chair who resigned last year
after revelations of partisan abuse of his position, Bell says he’ll
do an okay job. He told the Los Angeles Times, "I’m not an ideologue
and I’m certainly not Ken Tomlinson. I’m not on a crusade, except to
make PBS a really great network for people to watch." Okay, Warren.
We’ll be watching you, too.
But that’s not the point. Last summer, noting his lack of
qualifications, the Senate Commerce Committee opted not to consider
Bell’s nomination. So Bush waited until over the holidays, when
Congress was out of session, and named Bell to the board anyway — a
recess appointment that will be in place until the current session of
Congress ends. California Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer said, "The
American people made clear on November 7 they wanted bipartisanship
from their government, and President Bush once again chose to ignore
the concerns of the Senate instead of choosing a consensus nominee."
Presidents have been making recess appointments since George
Washington. The power’s right there in the Constitution — Article
II, Section 2 — "The President shall have Power to fill up all
Vacancies that may happen during the Recess of the Senate, by granting
Commissions which shall expire at the End of their next Session."
Our current president takes advantage of this perk a lot. Most of his
recess appointments have been for political and ideological advantage,
not — as was the Constitution’s intent — to fill positions essential
to the efficient running of government when there were long gaps
between sessions of Congress. Such was the case in pre-airplane and
air conditioning days, when travel was slow and the malarial heat
of DC shut down the capital for months. Today, President Bush uses
it to circumvent the balance of power, preventing the Senate from
exercising its right of advice and consent, pushing and shoving his
choices into office.
John Bolton’s tenure as ambassador to the United Nations is the
most notorious example, but how about Richard Stickler, a former
coal company executive who is head of the Mine Safety and Health
Administration? The Senate held up his appointment because, from 1989
to 1996, the injury rates at mines under his corporate management
were double the national average.
In October, the president granted Stickler a recess appointment.
According to the AFL-CIO, "Last year was the deadliest year for U.S.
coal miners since 1996, with 47 deaths — a 210 percent increase from
2005." That includes the 12 killed at the Sago Mine in West Virginia
a year ago. Stickler promises stricter enforcement and more mine
inspectors. We’re watching you as well, sir.
Then there’s Wayne Beyer, a Republican lawyer appointed to the Federal
Labor Relations Authority. The FLRA mediates management-labor disputes
involving the one million union members employed by the Federal
government (not including Postal Service employees). There are supposed
to be three members of the FLRA, two Republicans and one Democrat.
The Democratic slot is vacant but Bush refuses to name a replacement.
Meanwhile, on the same day as the Warren Bell CPB announcement,
the president recess-appointed Wayne Beyer to the FLRA. So now there
are two Republicans running the agency with no Democrat to challenge
their decision-making. It’s all legal.
There are others. Among them, Julie Myers, head of the Immigration
and Customs Enforcement Agency (successor to the Immigration and
Naturalization Service), whose lack of qualifications remains
controversial — she was assistant secretary for exports at the
Commerce Department, where she oversaw a staff of 170. Now she’s in
charge of more than 15,000.
And Ellen Sauerbrey, former U.S. representative to the UN Commission
on the Status of Women, whose right-to-life positions made her a
divisive recess appointment for the post of assistant secretary of
state for population, refugees, and migration.
The next Senate recess comes February 19, when there’s a weeklong
break for the Presidents Day holiday. Many anticipate the possibility
of at least two more controversial recess appointments.
The president may appoint Richard Hoagland ambassador to Armenia. The
nomination has been held up in the Senate by New Jersey Democratic
Senator Robert Menendez because of the administration’s and Hoagland’s
reluctance to classify the World War I-era killing of as many as one
million Armenians by the Ottoman Empire as genocide, a classification
the current Turkish government officially rejects.
President Bush may also name Susan Dudley head of the regulatory
office of the White House Office of Management and Budget, a position
described by Frank O’Donnell, president of Clean Air Watch as "one
of the most obscure yet powerful jobs in Washington."
In the online, public interest journal TomPaine.com, O’Donnell wrote,
"The person in this position can, largely without public scrutiny,
interfere with actions of agencies such as the Environmental Protection
Agency, and become a conduit for industries seeking to avoid federal
health, environmental, and safety standards.
"These industries couldn’t have picked a better champion than Dudley,
a true anti-regulatory zealot. As director of regulatory studies at the
industry-funded Mercatus Center, Dudley was like a wrecking ball out to
smash key safeguards. She opposed, for example, EPA attempts to reduce
smog, clean up gasoline, and keep arsenic out of drinking water…
"Putting Dudley in this key federal post would be like naming comedian
Michael Richards to head the U.S. Civil Rights Commission."
In other words, because of actions such as Bush administration recess
appointments, the clowns are running the circus.
++++++++ Over the last year, three great women of Texas have died:
former Governor Ann Richards, columnist Molly Ivins, and my mom.
Molly died last week and there’s nothing I can add to the justly
merited encomiums of praise. The final, brief conversation I had
with her was in the weeks just before my mother, Amanda Frances
Forrester Winship, passed. Knowing my mother hailed from the town
of Belton, Molly said, by way of benediction, I think, "Your mom —
she’s REAL Texas."
Molly Ivins was real Texas, too, and real just about everything
else; genuine in her liberal convictions, wickedly funny, vivid,
an inspiration to everyone who ascribes to Mr. Dooley’s famous
description of journalism’s purpose as afflicting the comfortable and
comforting the afflicted. All of us must act, Molly said, because,
"Politics is not a picture on a wall or a television sitcom that you
can decide you don’t much care for."
She was very much a role model for this column and if I ever get even
remotely proximate to her wisdom, generosity, patriotism, wit, and
class, I will die a happy man. God bless Molly Ivins. Raise more hell.
A BUZZFLASH GUEST CONTRIBUTION
Michael Winship, Writers Guild of America Award winner and former
writer with Bill Moyers, writes this weekly column for the Messenger
Post Newspapers in upstate New York.
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