Posted on 07/15/2004 9:58:21 AM PDT by FlyLow
(CNSNews.com) - A Republican member of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, concerned that the Senate's judicial "Memogate" controversy hasn't received a proper investigation, wants the commission to conduct its own inquiry into the contents of the Democrat strategy memos.
Commissioner Peter N. Kirsanow told CNSNews.com he plans to raise the matter at Friday's meeting, the commission's first gathering since April.
"Based on what's out there in the public domain, there's more than enough there to suggest someone should be taking a very good look at it," Kirsanow said. "And if no one else is taking a look at it, then someone needs to convince me why we shouldn't at least take a look at it."
One memo, in particular, has raised alarm with Kirsanow. A memo dated April 17, 2002, asks Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) to block the confirmation of a judicial nominee until after two high-profile affirmative action cases had been decided by the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Kirsanow described his proposal as modest. He plans to ask the commission's staff director, Les Jin, to monitor the matter and report back to the commissioners on any reason the panel should not be investigating potential wrongdoing.
"There may be agencies or bodies that are better suited, but if no one's going to take a look at this, it's an important enough issue that someone should be investigating it," Kirsanow said. "Clearly, it's within our charter to take a look at this issue."
Most disturbing, Kirsanow said, were the contents of the Kennedy memo. Two of Kennedy's aides recommended the senator seek a delay in the confirmation of Julia Smith Gibbons to the appeals circuit that covers Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee.
The request allegedly came from Elaine R. Jones, former president of the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, which participated in one of the University of Michigan affirmative action cases pending before the appeals court at the time the memo was written.
The memo spells out the rationale for delaying Gibbons' confirmation: "The thinking is that the current 6th Circuit will sustain the affirmative action program, but if a new judge with conservative views is confirmed before the case is decided, that new judge will be able, under 6th Circuit rules, to review the case and vote on it."
Gibbons was eventually confirmed by the Senate, but not until two months after the 6th Circuit had issued a ruling in one of the University of Michigan cases. Both cases eventually reached the U.S. Supreme Court, which upheld the use of affirmative action in higher education.
Kirsanow said he was befuddled and chagrined that no other government body has probed the contents of the Kennedy memo or the many others that exist. The Senate sergeant-at-arms conducted an investigation, and the Justice Department is currently looking into the matter, but both have focused on how the memos were downloaded from a computer server.
The former Senate aide who read the memos, Manuel Miranda, said he welcomed Kirsanow's call for an investigation. Miranda worked for Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) before resigning in February out of concern that he was becoming a distraction to his boss.
"The [Senate's] advice and consent role requires that both the senators and the staff operate with a certain ethical obligation and a public trust," said Miranda, who now serves as chairman of the Coalition for a Fair Judiciary's Ethics in Nominations Project. "What happened here, with regard to the Kennedy staffer and others, was a clear violation of the public trust."
Kennedy dodged questions about the memo when confronted by CNSNews.com in April. The author of the memo, his former Judiciary counsel Olati Johnson, has made no public comments. Jones, who has since retired from the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, has also skirted the issue.
"The really disturbing aspect of all the allegations about Democrat corruption of the judicial confirmation process is that everyone in Washington seems to run the other way from a full and complete investigation," said Jeffrey Mazzella, executive director of the Center for Individual Freedom.
"If Commissioner Kirsanow can spark significant discussion or an investigation by the Civil Rights Commission, perhaps that will inspire others, especially relevant committees in Congress, who have thus far shirked their responsibility on this issue," Mazzella added.
But before the commission decides to investigate, Kirsanow said he might need a vote simply to have the staff director look into the matter. With the commission equally divided between four conservatives and four liberals, it could turn into a contentious debate.
The panel's chairwoman, Mary Frances Berry, belongs to the board of directors of the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund. She is also a friend of Jones, a central figure in the Kennedy memo. Kirsanow said he would ask Berry to recuse herself, should the issue come up for a vote.
Berry abruptly adjourned the commission's May 17 meeting when the four conservative members didn't arrive on time. Syndicated columnist Robert Novak reported on the morning of the meeting that Kirsanow had planned to raise the issue.
"This is a perfect forum for it to come up," said Mychal S. Massie, a member of black leadership group Project 21. "It puts the significance of the memos back in their face. They are forced to confront this or simply dismiss it."
ping
I am glad that the FReepers who suggested that this would be left to lay ignored until closer to the election were correct.
NO SH*T!!!!
Just IMAGINE the OUTRAGE if the parties involved were reversed. BARF
Thank heaven for Mr. Kirsanow! Shame Berry is still oozing around wafting political miasma.
Isn't Mary Frances Berry that commie that GWB tried to replace?
Well, let's hope this guy has the balls to do something since nobody in the Senate seems to.
Yep.
I must have missed the report on her. I thought her term expired in Jan. 2003. How did that worthless woman manage to stay on the Civil Rights bored?
alert to spelling nazis the misuse is intentional
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