Bush Civil Rights Appointee Denied Seat by Commission, Refused Recognition

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.

If you follow the link at the bottom of the Salon article there is an interesting piece about the GAO report of mismanagement in her little fifedom. I found the last paragraphs to be extremely telling about how demo's work. Even tho they apparently couldn't stand her either, they kept her around...

Concerns about Berry's management and personal style have a long history. But few of her critics will talk on the record, which has made documenting her troubles difficult. Enough of them were willing to speak off the record to the Washington Monthly magazine that in 1987 it nominated her for a "Powers That Shouldn't Be" piece, naming public officials who shouldn't be nominated by the next Democratic president. The magazine reported that when Berry was assistant secretary of education under President Carter, officials there cut her out of policy decisions because "she'd shatter consensus and jeopardize initiatives ... she distrusted people [so] as to not be trustworthy herself ..." "Oh, I remember Mary," a former Carter aide told Salon News. "She was a real loose cannon. We spent a lot of time smoothing over things after she'd opened her big mouth."

The elimination of Cruz Reynoso, Maurice Grodin and Rose Bird from the California Supreme Court was a textbook-perfect political play pulled off by Gov. George Deukmejian and the state Republican Party. In 1986, Deukmejian was running for re-election, and four California Supreme Court justices were up for reconfirmation. Reynoso, Grodin and Chief Justice Bird were Jerry Brown appointees, and Stanley Mosk was a Pat Brown appointee.

Two PAC’s were aiming at Bird alone. Another was gunning for Bird, Reynoso and Grodin. Another had all four in its sights. With this kind of chaos the three prime offenders would have survived had not Deukmejian intervened.

Early in 1986, the heads of the four PAC’s got an invitation to come down to the governor’s office for a chat. The heads knew they would get a chance to make their pitch, but doubted that Deukmejian would risk his political capital in their cause with his own re-election in the balance. But did they ever get a shock!

Deukmejian told the PAC heads that he would support their cause and bring in the official might of the California Republican Party, thus making the reconfirmation battle a campaign issue. But the PAC’s had to agree to certain ground rules.

The four PAC’s would have to merge into one.
The unified PAC would be required to have its campaign literature and press releases vetted in advance by the state Republican organization, which would hire political consultants for the job. Nobody in the unified PAC was to open his mouth without the consultants’ permission.
The PAC was to target Reynoso, Grodin and Bird, but leave Stanley Mosk alone.

This controversial demand by Deukmejian turned out to be pure genius. Stanley Mosk had been on the California Supreme Court for two decades, having been appointed by Pat Brown. He was one of the most respected state jurists in the country. Deukmejian felt that tackling Mosk would make the effort to remove Reynoso, Grodin and Bird look like the work of extremists and thus damn the whole campaign. By publicly characterizing Mosk as a “responsible liberal” and damning the other three as “radical liberals”, the effort looked like the work of reasonable conservatives.

Besides, Mosk was a canny politician, and Deukmejian knew he would be a dangerous target. But once the three Jerry Brown appointees were gone and replaced by conservatives, Mosk and Alan Broussard would be isolated on the court and left powerless.

The state’s liberal establishment cranked up the machinery, and the institutional Democratic Party turned the reconfirmation of the three justices into party dogma. Democratic officeholders in marginal districts knew that the three were doomed and refused to back reconfirmation. The party then denied them campaign funds. This prompted a massive rebellion within the party outside of the cities. Democratic officeholders ran to Sacramento and screamed that the party brass was going to destroy them all in the name of political correctness. The decision about funding was reversed.

The Los Angeles Times then stepped in it big time by coming up with a convoluted—and ridiculous—reason to support the three justices. According to the US Constitution federal judges were to be insulated from the vagaries and whims of public opinion by the mechanism of lifetime appointment. The California Constitution’s reconfirmation provision was a flaw that permitted state judges to be voted upon and permitted court decisions to be judged by a public not competent to make such judgments. Therefore, reasoned the Times, the people must not make use of this flaw. The people were honor-bound and duty-bound to vote to reconfirm the three justices no matter how they felt about their decisions. It was a smarmy piece of logic and worked to the detriment of the liberal argument.

Bird lost by 3 to 1, and Grodin and Reynoso lost by 2 to 1. Mosk sailed to victory.

Either Clinton or Congress must have put Reynoso on the Civil Rights Commission as part of a jobs-for-the-boys program.

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