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.
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PUTTING HERSELF OUT OF DUBYA'S REACH
These days, Mary Frances Berry is soaking up the limelight. And she's going to do her damnedest to keep her job.
Berry, as I've mentioned before, heads the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights--you know, the group of geniuses that said minorities were disenfranchised in Florida even though they couldn't come up with one shred of evidence that there was a conspiracy by government officials to prevent them from voting.
John Miller of National Review calls her "one of the ambulance chasers of the civil-rights movement." That's because every time there's a problem with race relations, she's there. She was there to slam the police when Amadou Diallo was shot...just as Hillary Clinton's Senate campaign was building steam. She was there when those black high school students were suspended in Decatur, Illinois. And she was there during the black-church-burning hoax.
That's not all. In her writings, Berry touts communism and claims there was a real threat of genocide against blacks in the 1960s--the same threat faced by the Jews in the 1930s!
And it doesn't end there. Now Berry is working on keeping her embarrassing stranglehold on power.
Each of the commission's eight members is appointed by the White House and serves a term lasting six years. Berry succeeded Connie Homer, whose term expired December 5, 1998. Bill Clinton didn't get around to Berry until January 26, 1999--but that's not when the clock started ticking. It started the day Homer left the commission. Which means Berry's tenure expires in December 2004, and George W. Bush will be able to pick her successor.
But the Plum Book, which lists every political job in government, says differently. When she was preparing the commission's entry in the Plum Book, Berry listed her job's expiration date as January 21, 2005--one day after the next president is inaugurated!
She's clearly trying to keep herself out of Dubya's reach and escape any kind of accountability for her race-baiting career. Would Mary Frances Berry have any kind of career in the private sector? Not bloody likely. She's trying to hold on to that meal ticket for as long as she possibly can.
Will the Bush administration have the cojones to deal with her--not to mention her inevitable cries of racism if they do?
Boortz also included a link to that days "Inside the Beltway" by John McCaslin, but the link goes to the current days article. If anyone knows how to find the Washington Times archives of "Inside the Beltway" please go get the 06/11/01 edition and post it here for us.
:-)
But established rules and procedures of general administrative law would enter into the issue- it might also even be addressed in the congressional debate on the 1994 law.
It isn't a Presidential Commission. It was established by Congress. The members of the Commission do not serve at the pleasure of the President.
The President appoints 4 members. The Pres pro tem of the Senate appoints 2 members and the Speaker of the House appoints the final 2 members.
That's the sort of thing I'm looking for. I'm just trying to get to the legal bottom line and it's kind of slow going with all the partisan bluster on both sides of the issue.
Vacancy Announcement Number: CCR-01-08
Opening Date: 10/02/2001
Closing Date: 10/16/2001
Position: DEPUTY GENERAL COUNSEL
GS-0905-15/15
Salary: $87,864 per year - $114,224 per year
Promotion Potential: GS-15
Duty Location: 1 vacancy at WASHINGTON, DC
Federal Court Order
Contempt of Court
Berry's Arrest
New Commission
Cry "Havoc" and let slip the dogs of war !
What is she talking about. Isn't the commision a department of the executive branch? Where in the Constitution does it provide for a seperation of powers amongst the executive branch?
As it appears that a stupid law was passed to state that each new CRC member has a 6 year term, this opens it all up to abuse with the potential for a departing president to have all members of his party resign and then be reappointed for 6 year terms. This is why I believe that the courts will throw it out as unworkable and force the law to conform to staggered terms as originally set up with only new terms guaranteed for 6 years.
In the mean time Ms.B. gets her time in the spotlight and gets to be a petty annoyance to the Bush Administration. I'm sure she is delighted for the opportunity.
The actions of Ms. Berry are a disgrace to the country and all Americans. The Civil Rights Commission is not her personal kingdom. She is doing more to harm the civil rights cause than anyone in recent history. It's time for her to resign or be fired. If all else fails, we, the taxpayers who pay her salary, petition Congress to disband the Commission. It's obvious under the direction of Ms. Berry, the Commission is no longer effective.
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