Posted on 12/19/2001 8:12:15 AM PST by Jean S
Readers have been begging for an update about the refusal of Mary Frances Berry, the infamously partisan Democrat who runs the so-called U.S. Commission on Civil Rights with an iron fist, to seat Bush appointee Peter Kirsanow. So here's the latest.
The Democrat-dominated panel's action probably won't withstand a court challenge, congressional researchers have now said.
The whole mess started when Bill Clinton named Victoria Wilson to complete the term of the late Judge A. Leon Higginbotham Jr. Even Slick Willie himself "noted in the appointment certificate that Wilson's term would expire when Higginbotham's would have, on Nov. 29, 2001," the Associated Press reported today.
However, the fanatical Al Gore supporter Berry apparently cares little for the civil rights of non-Democrats. She decreed that Wilson would illegally stay on the commission for six years, and the partisan panel refused to seat Kirsanow at its meeting Dec. 7.
"In a Dec. 14 memo to the House subcommittee on the Constitution, the Congressional Research Service said the civil rights panel's maneuver runs counter to Congress' intent when it reauthorized the commission in 1994. It said Congress meant for commission members to serve staggered terms so that no one president can stack the panel with appointees," AP reported today.
Allowing Wilson to remain for six years would mean her term "would expire closer to, and perhaps coincide with, the set of four other expirations," said the memo, obtained today by AP.
The memo concluded that a reviewing court would likely find "that Mr. Kirsanow is entitled to the vacant position on the commission."
Why wait for courtroom antics? Call in the federal marshals now.
When does her appointment end? Does it ever end?
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.
Thank you.
But it still doesn't answer why this woman is still on this commission since the early 1980's I believe.
Is this position "chairman for life"?
All this fuss over the political behavior of a person who sits on a clearly partisan commission is so much hot air as far as I'm concerned. What do they expect, that she's going to fold her tent and slither off into the sunset?
Seems as if I recall another chairman of this commission giving Ronald Reagan a hard time, only this guy was a Rebublican. Can't recall his name just now but he obviously got the job by being in the right party, not for his views.
Congress should use this latest flap as justification for disbanding, abolishing, defunding, decommissioning this outmoded carryover from "separate-but-equal" times before the modern age began.
Its work has been completed. Any further action can only lead to more bickering such as we recently witnessed.
She can hardly make it in th public sector. Wasn't she relieved of a prior position because of her toxic personality. It's a wonder she doesn't exhale mustard gas. She deserves to lie in the bed of a smallpox victim. IMHO, she is pure evil.
Clintons appointment order also clearly said her term expired the day that the unfinished term she was filling expired.
Too bad nobody puts 2 and 2 together.
Want public sympathy? Want to get support from Senate,Congress, the White House?
Just burn down a few black churches, have the media spread the word that there are the same burnings going on 'everywhere', and YOU GET WHAT YOU WANT !
This is not a new tactic, it is a government wide tactic.
Would a 'black woman' , head of CRC, kill a few innocent black children to gain MORE POWER ??????
All I can say is, as this continues to unfold, and the possible loss of power looms, watch what Ms. Berry does .
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