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Mineta saved by illness
TownHall.com ^ | 2/01/03 | Robert Novak

Posted on 01/31/2003 9:11:15 PM PST by kattracks

WASHINGTON -- According to high-level administration sources, Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta was scheduled to follow former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill as the second Cabinet member to be fired by President Bush until illness landed him in Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

Mineta, a 71-year-old former congressman from California, is the only Democrat in Bush's Cabinet. He was saved from dismissal when a staph infection followed surgery last August to relieve persistent back pain, hospitalizing him for several weeks. He was operated on again Jan. 24, and remains at Walter Reed at this writing.

Although Transportation officials say Mineta runs the department from his hospital bed, the work is really being done by Deputy Secretary Michael Jackson (a protege and former aide of White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card).

DISCOURTEOUS DEMOCRATS

Reps. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio and Jesse Jackson Jr. of Illinois led the way in discourteous reaction by Democrats to President Bush's State of the Union address to the joint session of Congress Tuesday night.

Seated next to each other, Kucinich and Jackson spent much of the speech whispering and exchanging notes, hardly ever rising or applauding the president. Kucinich, who says he may run for president, rose and clapped when Bush promised health care for all and motioned to Jackson to stand up. However, the Chicago congressman stayed seated, continued to take notes and did not clap.

Jackson finally applauded when Bush called for fighting AIDS in Africa. He also rose when Bush, asserting that "we are winning" the war against terrorism, talked about hunting down al Qaeda. The only members of Congress who kept their seats in reaction to that presidential statement were Kucinich and Rep. Corrine Brown of Florida.

BUSH'S SALES JOB

The White House has grown more optimistic that Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania will be supportive on tort reform after a long conversation with George W. Bush on the president's recent flight to Scranton, Pa.

They discussed Pennsylvania's medical malpractice problems, and the president reported back he felt the senator will help. Specter, the Senate Judiciary Committee's third ranking Republican, has been considered resistant to tort reform. His son, Shanin Specter, is one of Philadelphia's leading personal injury lawyers.

Arlen Specter's top political donors include litigators. However, facing a potential Republican primary election challenge from conservative Rep. Patrick Toomey, Specter needs to stay in the good graces of the White House.

GOP LEFT REVOLT

On the day of President Bush's State of the Union address, Rep. Mike Castle of Delaware assembled the liberal Republican Main Street Partnership that he heads to confront the House GOP leadership of Speaker Dennis Hastert and Majority Leader Tom DeLay.

Castle, a former governor of Delaware, claims to represent some 60 Republican House members concerned about DeLay's assertiveness as the new majority leader. Castle has complained about a $50,000 contribution by DeLay's political action committee to the conservative Club for Growth, which has challenged Republican incumbents. In 2002, it targeted Rep. Wayne Gilchrest of Maryland but failed to defeat him.

A footnote: Members of Castle's group are particularly irritated that Rep. Christopher Shays of Connecticut, a co-sponsor of the campaign finance reform act, was passed over as chairman of the House Government Reform Committee though he was next in seniority.

LEAHY'S COMPLAINT

Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, the former Senate Judiciary Committee chairman who is now the panel's ranking Democrat, complained that he was not given sufficient notice of Wednesday's confirmation hearing on three proposed appellate court judges nominated by President Bush early in 2001.

The hearing was originally set for May 23, 2001, but was cancelled when the Democrats took control of the Senate and Leahy became Judiciary chairman.

A footnote: In a party line vote Thursday, the committee sent to the Senate floor Washington, D.C., lawyer Miguel Estrada's nomination as a District of Columbia circuit court judge. He had been blocked since 2001 by Judiciary's Democrats. Republicans are anxious to get Estrada on the appellate bench to position him for possible early appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court.

©2003 Creators Syndicate, Inc.

Contact Robert Novak | Read his biography



TOPICS: Editorial; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: mineta; normanmineta; underperformin
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To: bonesmccoy
Mineta is old and tired. He needs rest and to spend more time with his family. It would be cruel to keep him on. Letting him go is the compassionate thing to do.
21 posted on 01/31/2003 10:49:45 PM PST by Bonaparte
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To: Bonaparte
LOL "I feel your pain"

22 posted on 02/01/2003 12:31:29 AM PST by bonesmccoy (Defeat the terrorists... Vaccinate!)
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To: Bonaparte
No need to "fire" old Mineta. I'm sure there's a nice and warm tropical island somewhere that needs an ambassador...
23 posted on 02/01/2003 12:35:25 AM PST by ambrose
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To: NormsRevenge
Maybe this infrastructure thing will help make it easier to move the center of Government to the mid-continent away from the coast. It would be a shame to let all those Amtrak rail properties go to auction for a pittance.

Wouldn't Grand Isle, NE be ideal? Middle of country, easy access for all 4 directions, nobody hardy lives there etc.

I noticed while driving to-from San Jose to central Minnesota that there are railroad tracks/beds running North-South between MN and NE. I was suprised.

24 posted on 02/01/2003 1:39:44 AM PST by all_mighty_dollar
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To: ambrose
Excellent idea, ambrose! Let's find him something interesting but not too taxing. Hmmm. I have it! Let's make him ambassador to the Federal Islamic Republic of Comoros. Being a democrat, he'll be grateful that we've placed him among his natural allies, the muslims. Since the people are poor, illiterate and violent, he'll feel just like he's with his old constituency. Plus, he'll have all the bananas, coconuts and cassavas he can eat.
25 posted on 02/01/2003 1:45:01 AM PST by Bonaparte
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To: henderson field
I don't know if your remark was an attempt at humor or not, but it certainly was not even remotely funny. Care to provide any evidence that Minetta's parents were "subversive"? Or are you just saying that because they were of Japanese ancestry?
26 posted on 02/01/2003 10:31:28 AM PST by ambrose
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To: Bonaparte
I was thinking of something more along the lines of the Republic of Palau. Nice nice nice island, and he can't get in much trouble of there.
27 posted on 02/01/2003 10:44:14 AM PST by ambrose
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To: ambrose
Palau it is! We can have him air-lifted on a stretcher today! I think the sunshine and fresh air will do him good.
28 posted on 02/01/2003 1:24:50 PM PST by Bonaparte
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To: henderson field
Spew your racist hate elsewhere.
29 posted on 02/01/2003 1:31:42 PM PST by jude24
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To: Publius
I like that huge Boeing concept cargo plane that flies above the waves. Let's take back the merchant seas!
30 posted on 02/01/2003 1:34:07 PM PST by bvw
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To: henderson field
Mineta is NOT the reason for the demise of the commercial airline industry.
31 posted on 02/01/2003 1:36:16 PM PST by bvw
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Comment #32 Removed by Moderator

To: Kuleana; swarthyguy
Read MAGIC: The Untold Story of U.S. Intelligence and the Evacuation of Japanese Residents From the West Coast During WW II, by David D. Lowman. The U.S. government had intelligence justifying the relocation that it could not reveal at the time.
33 posted on 02/04/2003 7:52:59 AM PST by aristeides
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To: kattracks; CholeraJoe
Was the second operation also to relieve the back pain? I'm not sure that would have been wise, given the complications that resulted from the first operation. Back pain may be unpleasant, but it's not life-threatening.
34 posted on 02/04/2003 7:59:28 AM PST by aristeides
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To: aristeides; Kuleana
Thanks. Keep spreading the word. Eventually the shibboleths about US 'racism' against the Japanese Nisei and Kisei will be shown for what they really are.

An ignorance of the true facts. To some extent, the USG is to blame for not putting its case for internment more forcefully over the decades since the war.

And of course, no one refers to the limited number of Germans and Italians interned on the east coast.

Which of course wipes out the racist argument.
35 posted on 02/04/2003 9:25:23 AM PST by swarthyguy
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