Posted on 12/07/2001 8:13:22 AM PST by Jean S
WASHINGTON (AP) - The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights refused Friday to seat - or even recognize - a new commissioner appointed by President Bush.
Cleveland labor lawyer Peter Kirsanow watched quietly from the audience as attempts by the three Republican commissioners to have him seated or acknowledged were repeatedly voted down 5-3. Kirsanow attempted to vote for the first 10 minutes of the session but he was ignored and eventually sat silent as his allies continued debate.
The meeting opened with an attempt by Republican commissioners to adjourn until the dispute over the commission's makeup is resolved. But Chairwoman Mary Frances Berry persuaded the commission to reject that effort, saying it is impossible to know when the legal dispute will be resolved.
Berry recounted how President Reagan fired her in 1983 and how she fought through the courts to get back on the board.
She said accepting the White House or Justice Department interpretation of the law on the commission's makeup "would threaten the very independence of the commission."
Commissioner Christopher Edley, an ally of Berry, said he has told House Democratic leader Dick Gephardt that the White House is trying to reshape the commission in an apparent retribution for some of his work.
Berry - a frequent critic of the 2000 elections and particularly of Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, younger brother of the president - presides over a panel on which six commissioners lean Democratic and two lean Republican. The White House has already announced it plans to appoint Jennifer Cabranes Braceras to replace Yvonne Lee, whose term is expiring in early December. If Kirsanow is seated, the commission would be split 4-4.
Kirsanow was sworn in Thursday night to fill the seat of Victoria Wilson, an independent whose term, the White House says, expired Nov. 29.
White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said there was no legal merit to Berry's claim that Wilson's term has not expired, noting a ruling by the Justice Department's legal counsel and Clinton administration records that indicate it has expired. He denied rough politics on the White House's part, saying Kirsanow was installed within the letter of the law.
Berry said the White House's moves were "about muzzling us and it's scary to have them take all of this time and energy. It makes me even more afraid for the preservation of the commission."
The dispute between the Republican White House and a prominent black civil rights leader surprised the Bush team.
By taking the disputed seat held by Wilson, Kirsanow, a member of the largely conservative Center for New Black Leadership, would effectively rein in Berry's power over the commission.
The Bush administration maintains Wilson's term ended Nov. 29, when the term of the man she succeeded, Judge A. Leon Higginbotham Jr., would have expired. Higginbotham died in 1998.. This expiration date was spelled out in the Clinton administration's paperwork on Wilson's appointment, the White House says.
Berry argued the documents are wrong and are trumped by federal law, which says new commissioners will fill a six-year term.
Democratic Reps. John Conyers of Michigan and Jerrold Nadler of New York wrote Berry on Thursday to say the law as amended in 1994 reflects her interpretation.
The commission received a letter from the Justice Department late Thursday informing Berry that she is not allowed to retain outside legal help without Attorney General John Ashcroft's permission. Berry rejected that opinion.
Anyone remember this in detail? I think it rings a bell for me, but that's about it.
It should.
If Al Gonzales has any balls, he will get a court order telling that nasty, ugly b*tch to SIT DOWN AND SHUT UP (and seat the new commissioner).
prambo
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