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.
Well, I think Congrss should hold hearings about just WHO is the obstructionist here. Apparently Pres. Bush is within his rights, and the REQUIREMENTS of the Commission in appointing a 4th Republican. After all the commission is supposed to the half Dem and Half Repub, right? At this moment, the Commission doesn't sound very independent does it?
That's what they want. Publicity
They get around that requirement by calling themselves Independent.
Mary Frances Berry (Chairperson)
Geraldine R. Segal Professor of American Social Thought
Professor of History and Adjunct Professor of Law
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
POLITICAL AFFILIATION: Independent
Cruz Reynoso (Vice Chairperson)
Professor of Law
University of California at Los Angeles
Los Angeles, California
POLITICAL AFFILIATION: Democrat
Yvonne Y. Lee
Yvonne Lee Consultants
San Francisco, California
POLITICAL AFFILIATION: Democrat
Victoria Wilson
Vice President and Associate Publisher
Alfred A. Knopf
Vice President, PEN Executive Board
New York, New York
POLITICAL AFFILIATION: Independent
Congressional Appointees (4):
Christopher Edley, Jr.
Professor, Harvard Law School
Founding Co-Director, The Civil Rights Project
Harvard University
Cambridge, Massachusetts
POLITICAL AFFILIATION: Democrat
Elsie M. Meeks
Executive Director, Lakota Fund
Co-owner and operator of Lone Creek Store in Wanblee, South Dakota
Pine Ridge Reservation, South Dakota
POLITICAL AFFILIATION: Democrat
Russell G. Redenbaugh
Partner and Director, Cooke & Bieler, Inc.
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
POLITICAL AFFILIATION: Independent
Abigail Thernstrom
Senior Fellow, Manhattan Institute
New York City, New YOrk
POLITICAL AFFILIATION: Republican
What really frosts my pumpkin about this cretin is her continued habit of being disingenuous about what is really going on here. She knows what this is all about and yet she makes statements like the one above.
To her it's all a big pissin' contest. It's about power and just how much she gets to hang onto. Pathetic.
That's what I'm thinking. I would guess this might just be a trap for Berry and an opportunity for Bush to get rid of her, one way or another.
What I don't understand is that, if each commissioner receives a 6-year appointment, then she would have been reappointed in '86 by Reagan, who in '83 tried to fire her. Can that be right? Assuming successive 6-year terms, her current 4th term would be up in January '04, Bush's last year in office.
If the point was moot, there wouldn't be any controversy. I don't care what Berry says and honestly I don't care what Bush's administration says either. What does the LAW say?
In 1986, Reynoso, Grodin and Rose Bird were voted off the California Supreme Court by an angry electorate. Grodin and Reynoso were dumped by a 2-1 margin, and Bird by 3-1.
So calling themselves Independent to "get around" a requirement is not subterfuge.
However, appointing a new commissioner because of an expiration spelled out by the letter is the rank act.
Truly rat behavior.
Against her employer, no less.
The more devious aspect is how she changed her political affiliation from Rat to Independent to get around the "four members of the same party" limit. She's about as independent as ... (I don't know what, but she is no independent).
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