Posted on 04/11/2005 6:23:57 PM PDT by firefly2300
Last month we learned that former President Jimmy Carter and former Secretary of State (under Bush 41) James Baker III were to co-chair the Commission on Federal Election Reform. This Commission "will recommend improvements to the nation's federal election system."
Dr. Robert Pastor is the Executive Director of the Commission. This means he is in charge of getting the final report together, which ultimately gives him extraordinary influence on what the report says how it leans.
But, Pastor is hardly a non-partisan.
Back in October 2004, Pastor, a registered Democrat, endorsed John Kerry for President, and is on record saying, "Four more years of President Bush could irrevocably stain the image and the influence of The United States in the world."
His own biography on the American University website showcases his liberal background.
from 1985 until 1998, he was a Fellow and Founding Director of the Carter Center's Latin American and Caribbean Program and the Democracy and China Election Projects. At The Carter Center, he founded and served as the Executive Secretary of the Council of Freely-Elected Heads of Government, a group of 32 leaders of the Americas, chaired by former US President Jimmy Carter. From 1977-81, he was Director of Latin American and Caribbean Affairs on the National Security Council. He was the Senior Advisor to the Carter-Nunn-Powell mission to Haiti and was nominated by President Clinton to be Ambassador to Panama in 1993.
If that's not enough for you, I'm sure you'll find it quite interesting that from 1999-2000 he was co-chairman of Advisory Group on the Americas for the Gore-Lieberman Campaign, and was vice-chairman of the Gore-Lieberman Campaign In Georgia. Back in 1996, he was was vice-chairmanr of the Clinton-Gore Campaign in Georgia. During this time, he was also a surrogate speaker for President Clinton and Vice President Gore. He has a long liberal resume worth your perusal.
In the 2004 election cycle, not only donated $2,000 to John Kerry, but he also donated $1,000 to Howard Dean, and as we know, Howard Dean supporters are the most liberal of Democrats.
Pastor also has a record of being incredibly negative about the integrity of our elections, even predicting before the 2004 election that another Florida 2000 scenario would occur. "[The 2004 Presidential] election will have more problems than any previous election," he said.
So, is this what you would call the face of a non-partisan:
Can we really trust this guy to be objective when judging our electoral proposing reforms? Perhaps he'll just advocate an election reform bill as bad as Hillary's Count Every Vote Act.
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