Posted on 09/15/2009 6:22:25 PM PDT by markomalley
Emboldened by the ouster of presidential adviser Van Jones, conservative and business groups are launching fresh challenges aimed at derailing President Obama's nominees.
The latest of these targets is David Michaels, Mr. Obama's pick to head the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), who as an academic published a book attacking corporate executives for the tactics they used to fight class-action lawsuits. Republican critics said they considered Mr. Michaels to be too close to trial lawyers because of his aggressive advocacy on their behalf.
"We are definitely troubled by Michaels' nomination," said Keith Smith, the director of employment and labor policy and the National Association of Manufacturers. "We will be urging the Senate committee to carefully review his nomination."
The drumbeat of criticism aimed at Mr. Michaels follows a pattern that began with the case of Cass Sunstein, who last week was confirmed by the Senate as the White House's top regulator. Critics attempting to kindle doubts about Mr. Sunstein first outlined their objections on conservative blogs.
Colorful samples from Mr. Sunstein's large body of academic work -- including those suggesting his strong views on animal rights and organ donation -- became fodder for critical commentaries on conservative Op-Ed pages and then arose during right-leaning television and radio talk shows.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
Sunstein would be a great target because he was confirmed by the senate (including yea votes from my senators, Snowe and Collins). That would be a slam at the admin for picking him and the senate for the confirmation.
Collins based her decision on a weak explanation about the animals being represented by lawyers as opposed to the rest of the huge body of evidence that should have immediately disqualified him.
Not so much a hunt as it is singling one out to cut out of the herd.
Interesting choice of the word “hunt”..I would have used the words ‘look “or “select”, this administration has provided so many choices to target.
It’d be most efficient to remove the guy who is appointing all of these problems.
Ousted czar Van Jones's brand of anti-Americanism, and economic radicalism was familiar to the Chicago cabal, now in the WH.
According to several WH sources, Jones was hired EVEN AFTER concerns were raised when Jones's troubling background materials came back attached to "Standard Form 86 Questionnaire for National Security Positions."
A source inside the White House Counsel's office says that their office had recently begun to look into whether Van Jones had recently had contact with this friends and former co-workers at "Color for Change," the leftist group Jones helped found, and which launched the advertiser boycott against Fox News' Glenn Beck. "Color for Change" ramped up its protest of Beck after he began attacking the Obama Administration's "Czar" programs, including Jones.
The White House legal office was also looking into the timing of a website that was launched late Friday, VanJones.net; earlier in the week the site had been "Under Construction."
The counsel's office places part of the blame on the Office for Intergovernmental Affairs and Public Engagement, which is overseen by Obama Senior Advisor and Assistant to the President Valerie Jarrett. Jones's "czar" job was created by the OIAPE, and Jarrett interviewed Jones for the position.
In speeches before far-left groups over the past five months, Jarrett touted Jones's hiring, in part, because the groups, many of which count 9/11 truthers and radical environmentalists and anti-capitalists as members, were familiar with Jones's brand of anti-Americanism and economic radicalism. "This wasn't simply Valerie Jarrett rubberstamping her guy," says a White House source. "You don't fill a position like this without his hire being approved at a couple of different levels at least."
But Jarrett did view Jones as a critical member of the administration for her outreach efforts, in part, because he was so well known and respected in the radical-left world the administration is counting on to help with issues like health care and cap and tax, and, more importantly, campaign efforts in 2010.
Playing to those types is another reason Jarrett's office approved the invitation of Jameel Jaffer, who runs the ACLU's "national security project," to the White House Ramadan dinner last week. Jaffer, a Canadian citizen, attended the dinner Obama said was being held for American Muslims.
Jaffer is a cause célèbre to the far left for his career of litigating against the United States in support of terrorists and radical Islamists, and has proudly touted his awards from groups like CAIR. "We had other names on the list for invitations, but Jarrett's office wanted Jaffer in the room. We were told it was important," says a White House source. "It was made clear that his presence was something senior folks here wanted to happen."
Jaffer has filed lawsuits challenging the FBI's "national security letter" authority, the constitutionality of warrantless wiretaps, and has been a leader in pushing for the shut down of Guantánamo Bay, and providing legal rights to terrorists held by the United States overseas in such countries as Iraq and Afghanistan. His efforts enabled the leaking of "torture photos" out of Iraq and Afghanistan, and some sources inside the CIA believe he was one of the lawyers who provided legal advice to the Dept of Justice to pursue an investigation into enhanced interrogation techniques used by the CIA.
"Given the groups Jarrett cultivates and keeps engaged, she needs to be able to point to people like Jones and Jaffer to keep our base happy," explains the former transition aide.
Jarrett's office isn't just about hiring anti-American presidential senior staff or inviting them to posh official dinners at the White House, though. Jarrett's office, according to White House sources, was influential in advocating for the creation of a "chief diversity officer" (CDO) at the FCC, as well as numerous other senior positions on regulatory and advisory commissions within the federal government bureaucracy.
"One of the reasons they held off on nominating confirmable positions at agencies like the FCC was so the White House could look at the structure of those agencies and where they could create jobs more in line with the President's thinking, so they create a post like diversity chief, and then we have a blueprint for the nominated chairs or staff directors to follow.
That's how we got [FCC CDO] Mark Lloyd," explains a former Obama transition staffer. Lloyd's job is, in part, to look for ways to create more "diversity" in media ownership, a policy approach that is viewed as a backdoor way to put in place a kind of "Fairness Doctrine."
Obama friend Cass Sunstein, a former colleague at the University of Chicago Law School, is now administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs within the Office of Management and Budget. Known inside the White House as the "Regulation Czar," Sunstein is tasked with developing regulations around the policies for environmental, healthcare, and safety issues (NOTE: Sunstein can do and undo ANY regulation. He believes animals should have lawyers to sue people). According to administration sources, Sunstein's office is looking for ways to impose through the regulatory process those Obama White House health care, environmental, and labor policies that do not survive the legislative process.
"The goal from this White House is to have as much nonspecific language passed by Congress in policy areas like health care and the environment and then use Sunstein's office to put in place the regulatory language called for by Congress that gets us to where we want to be. It may very well be the most important job in this administration, given the lack of success we may have on Capitol Hill," says a White House source.
SOURCE http://spectator.org/archives/2009/09/08/valerie-jarretts-show
I just flushed one.
Sunstein should be the next. He is being groomed for the Supreme Court to completely revamp ‘Bill of Rights’ by 2020.
I'd like to get Rahm, Zeke, and Cass with one Beck missile.
They won’t have to look far.
Make sure that we dump Van Jones’s “huge fan” Meg Whitman too.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSn37TMXZO8&feature=player_embedded
So what are these stinky czars doing right this very minute?
Purging every radio interview, thesis, book, recorded statement, paper trail or any other thing that exposes their past the way Van Jones was exposed. They’re disappearing their pasts, so there’s nothing to see.
If you want to find stuff on them, better hurry up.
Multitasking and getting er done.
Yes, they are in meltdown mode and destroying much.
“Hunt” is a poor, inaccurate word for this. There are so many radical communists out in the open surrounding Obama, the correct analogy would be waiting in the tree stand next to the corn feeder for the next Van Jones. This is shooting fish in a barrel. A very target rich environment.
I’d love to see Kathleen Sebelius in the sites. No reason other than I cannot stand her.
By the time the 2010 elections come around, nobody will want to admit that they are a democrat.
We don’t have to hunt. They seem to be every where we look.
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