Embarrassing Berry
Posted on 12/10/2001 3:03:17 AM PST by Elle Bee
Incivility on the U.S. Civil Rights Commission.
Will some adult Democrats please inform Mary Frances Berry, head of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission, that last year's election is over and George W. Bush is President? Maybe then she will do her job and seat Peter Kirsanow, Mr. Bush's choice for the Commission's vacant slot.
Instead, Mr. Kirsanow had to suffer the ignominy of trying to participate in the Commission's proceedings Friday while Ms. Berry blithely pretended he didn't exist. A "member of the audience" may not address the Commission, she intoned, when Republican Commissioner Jennifer Braceras asked that he be allowed to present his credentials.
We fully understand that Mr. Bush's election must have been a shock for Ms. Berry, who has spent the past 20 years diligently using this "bipartisan" body to advance the political and social agenda of the most partisan liberals. She has made the most of the 5-3 edge that Democrats currently hold on the eight-member panel. If civil rights veteran Mr. Kirsanow is allowed to replace Victoria Wilson, whose term expired November 29, that advantage would shift to 4-4, and Ms. Berry's activism would no longer go unchecked.
Ms. Berry's claim that Ms. Wilson is entitled to a new six-year term defies precedent and logic. Ms. Wilson was appointed by President Clinton to finish the term of Commissioner Leon Higginbotham, who died in 1998. The Clinton White House even stated this at the time of her appointment, though it didn't have to. The 1983 statute is clear: "Any member appointed to fill a vacancy shall serve for the remainder of the term for which his predecessor was appointed."
In 1994, when the statute was last amended, this aspect wasn't changed in letter or spirit. Members of the Civil Rights Commission, like members of other federal commissions, serve staggered terms. The purpose is to protect the Commission's independence and integrity, which would be compromised if each Administration were permitted to clean house and bring in its own people. We know Ms. Berry is familiar with this rationale, because it's hers. Staggering was put into the 1983 statute at her urging for these very reasons.
But we guess Ms. Berry is having too good a time playing in her partisan sandbox to care much about a little matter like the law. In April 2000, smack in the middle of the Presidential election campaign, Ms. Berry issued a report attacking efforts to end race-based college admissions policies in Texas, Mr. Bush's home state, and Florida, where Mr. Bush's brother Jeb is Governor. The timing and the targets were pure coincidence, of course.
So, too, was her decision to investigate the New York City Police Department in the middle of the Rudolph Giuliani-Hillary Clinton Senate race. Al Sharpton was kind enough to inform the media at the time that her report, highly critical of the mayor and the police, was "exactly what we asked for." We're not sure which was more disturbing: Mr. Sharpton's knowing remark, which he voiced before the report was made public, or the revelation that Ms. Berry had donated to Mrs. Clinton's campaign.
The results of election 2000, however, were too much for the Chairman to bear. In August the Commission drafted an unsubstantiated report charging that black voters were discriminated against in Florida and that Mr. Bush's victory was due to "a pattern and practice of injustice."
The Civil Rights Commission was created to promote racial coexistence, but Ms. Berry has turned it into a partisan tool of racial division. Her decision to fight the White House in court over Mr. Kirsanow's appointment is nothing more than a last-ditch effort to stir up more racial animus. Mr. Bush would do the country a favor by dismissing her, but then Ms. Berry would travel the country claiming to be a racial martyr. This is one case in which Democrats should police their own.
.
This Commission is about as powerful as a small college's Young Democrats Club. It should never have turned into a Young Democrats Club, but that's what has happened. Berry has turned it into a complete joke, and it's reports now have the same credibility and weight as the Official Report on The Florida Election issued by some Young Democrats Club at some small college in Broward County Florida.
.
democrats will just keep repeating the lies and they will become talking points and legends amongst their base
.
Yes. "The President may remove a member of the Commission only for neglect of duty or malfeasance in office."
Be nice to see Condi Rice show up and kick her butt!
(I know it's irrational, too much coffee this AM, sorry).
The mistake the WSJ is making here is assuming that an adult Demorat (if they were to find one) would be honest, rational, and have his/her country's best interests at heart.
Ms Berry joins JJackson, Rev Al, and a seemingly growing list of people that keep the "N" word alive and active.
Mary Frances Berry (Chairperson) ... POLITICAL AFFILIATION: IndependentHahahahaha! Yeah, right! This is too funny.
Also, Wilson's name (also listed as "Independent") is still up there. Bush should order the site be updated to reflect the current composition of the board.
SEC.2.(b)(2)(B)...any member appointed to fill a vacancy shall serve for the remainder of the term for which his predecessor was appointed...
Here's another reference:
The United States Commission on Civil Rights
The United States Commission on Civil Rights, first created by the Civil Rights Act of 1957, and reestablished by the United States Commission on Civil Rights Act of 1983, is an independent, bipartisan agency of the Federal Government. By the terms of the 1983 act, as amended by the Civil Rights Commission Amendments Act of 1994 , the Commission is charged with the following duties pertaining to discrimination or denials of the equal protection of the laws based on race, color, religion, sex, age, disability, or national origin, or in the administration of justice: investigation of individual discriminatory denials of the right to vote; study and collection of information relating to discrimination or denials of the equal protection of the law; appraisal of the laws and policies of the United States with respect to discrimination or denials of equal protection of the law; maintenance of a national clearinghouse for information respecting discrimination or denials of equal protection of the law; investigation of patterns or practices of fraud or discrimination in the conduct of Federal elections; and preparation and issuance of public service announcements and advertising campaigns to discourage discrimination or denials of equal protection of the law. The Commission is also required to submit reports to the President and the Congress at such times as the Commission, the Congress, or the President shall deem desirable.
Does Knopf publish any Klintoon books?
were they the one's who gave the Evita that advance? ...... or to Bubber? perhaps someone should look at just what Vicky has pushed at Knopf
John Fund / WSJ. in April...
"Bill Clinton has landed an advance of close to $12 million for world-wide rights to his presidential memoirs, a record for a nonfiction book. Publisher Alfred A. Knopf claims it will make money on the deal, but that ignores a long history of money-losing books by political figures. Roger Straus, president of Farrar, Straus & Giroux, says the enormous size of the advance is "particularly strange" because there wasn't an auction among competing publishers. He doesn't "see how it's possible for it to make money."
The publishing landscape is littered with books by political figures that failed to make back their advance. Exceptions are the memoirs of Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf and those of Jimmy Carter, who received an advance of less than $1 million.
"Publishing books by famous politicians is an ego trip for publishers," Mr. Straus says. "They get publicity and prestige, and they can carry any huge advance as an asset on their balance sheets until the book is released. There are few headlines reporting massive returns of unsold books."
.
What is the worst interview?
A: We've pulled a couple of plugs. I'd say the worst interview I've done in the five years I've been on "The Factor" was Mary Frances Berry. Who is one of the officers of the NAACP. Look, Kwesi Mfumi, he's brilliant ...
Q: He is a bright, articulate guy. Wrong, but a bright articulate guy.
A: Well, he's not wrong on everything, I don't think. I think he has some major points that are worth considering. But Berry is a fanatic! Again, if you don't see it her way, you're a racist. She filibustered on "The Factor," which we don't permit.
Q: How the hell does anybody filibuster with you?
A: Well, yeah, that's right! I tried to do it with my questions and stop her from spinning, and she wouldn't stop talking. So I pulled the plug on her. I just pulled the microphone out and said, "Okay, that's the end of her."
Q: How often have you had to do that?
A: It's only happened three times in five years on "The Factor." But we're just not going to permit propaganda to be spewed. That's not going to happen.
.
While I don't pay too much attention to Katie Colon, and her ilk, if that is the Status quo, then Bush should Fire Berry for cause.....And replace her, with say....Ward Connelly....
The rationale, obviously being that, If they're heating up a non story, they can't do to much more if you give them a real story, without looking like they have an Axe to grind.
BWAAHAAAHAA, sorry I missed that one.
It's amazing to see people who are so incredibly incompetant in government jobs.
Um, wait, I mean high-profile government jobs
That's not right either, high-profile un-elected government jobs.
Well, I guess that's not so surprising either - never mind...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.