Scary, Huh?
Posted on 9/17/2002, 12:26:04 PM by SJackson
Edited on 4/23/2004, 6:47:07 AM by Jim Robinson. [history]
President Bush doesn't need any more reasons to do something about the management of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. But Mary Frances Berry, the divisive head of the agency, keeps providing them.
Earlier this year Ms. Berry refused to seat Peter Kirsanow, the President's pick to fill a vacancy on the panel. The matter ended up before a federal appeals court, which ruled unanimously against Ms. Berry in May. Now she wants to prevent Commissioner Kirsanow from assembling an effective staff.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
The answer is as obvious as, ahem, the skin on her face.
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Pardon me for being a gleeful cynic here, but don't you think that GWB keeps her on just because she's such a flaming embarrassment to the Democrats/liberals?
Remember back in the dark old days of the Clinton [shudder] administration, the lighthearted moments we felt ridiculing Jocelyn Elder because EVERYTHING SHE SAID was so stupid it was an embarrassment to Big Bubba?
Because the commission has no enforcement powers...
The "Civil Rights for Some Americans Commision" has never had enforcement powers as such, but they have traditionally had the power of moral coercion, which Mary Frances has wielded with all the subtlety of a Berserker with a battle axe. In times when a Democratic administration was in power, she needed only to snap her fingers to make the White House "jump".
As long as Mary Frances Berry the Person is the issue, the left wing of the CR commision does not advance its agenda, and she loses her "bully pulpit" capability when it comes to infuencing Administration policy.
Every court needs a jester, or if you will, a 'FOOL'. Marry Francis Berry fulfills that need very well, since she personifies the idiocy of liberalism taken to its natural extreme.
She is right where GWB wants her. Serving as a bad example of the opposition party. JMHO
Scary, Huh?
Does she want to pay him less because he's Black?
Well, kinda... he's black, but since he doesn't share ler leftwing extremist tendencies, she doesn't think he's "black enough".
Or because he's white?
Or because he's a conservative?
BINGO! Because GWB nominated him, to Mary Frances Berry he's an "Uncle Tom". The presence of another conservative would break her lock on policy issues, because they would have an even balance of left and right represented.
The Washington and Lee law school magazine did a great story on his role in Florida, but unfortunately I don't think the article is available on-line or in soft-copy.
Republicans on the committee, who now number 4, are held hostage by MFBerry shenanigans. She's outraged committee votes are now evenly split, and determined to sabotage forthright work being done. She won't provide republicans with agendas.
From the Sept 5 WashTimes: "Republican commissioners accused Miss Berry of moving meetings out of the panel's office in Washington to avoid the scrutiny of the media and the House Judiciary Committee, both of which have been critical of the commission."
Let the vain pay for it out of their own pockets.
Members of rights panel cry foul (Republican denied the right to participate )
THE WASHINGTON TIMES ^ | September 14, 2002 | Joyce Howard Price
Posted on 09/15/2002 7:10 PM Eastern by USA21
Members of rights panel cry foul
Two Republican members of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission say they were denied the right to participate in an out-of-town meeting yesterday, contending commission officials reneged on a promise to provide a telephone hookup to the meeting.
Commissioners Abigail Thernstrom and Peter Kirsanow said the commission's special assistant, Alex Sun, said there would be a teleconference with the Wilmington, Del., meeting from the commission's Washington office. It was not hooked up when they arrived for the meeting.
"It's as if they put up a sign that said 'You are not wanted,'" said Mrs. Thernstrom.
Commission officials insisted there was never a firm offer for a teleconference and that the two commissioners simply misunderstood what they were told. "We had no expectation that commissioners who wanted to attend the meeting would not be in Wilmington," said Nathea Lee, commission spokeswoman.
Ms. Lee also said officials didn't expect the board's four Republican appointees to attend. The four Republicans recently had threatened to boycott the meeting when Chairman Mary Frances Berry and the commission's staff refused to provide an agenda or a location for the meeting.
The failure of any of the Republicans to participate in the meeting prevented the commission from having the five-member quorum necessary to conduct any official business. The commission's four Democrats were present.
Phone hookups have been used when previous meetings were held out of town by the fact-finding agency of the executive branch
Reached yesterday, Mr. Sun denied that he assured the commissioners they would have phone access to the meeting in Wilmington. "I said possibly there could be a phone hookup on an as-needed basis," he said.
"It sounds like there was some miscommunication perhaps they misunderstood," Mr. Sun said. Mrs. Thernstrom strongly denies she and Mr. Kirsanow misunderstood what they were told Thursday night about a teleconference.
"Peter Kirsanow is a very good lawyer, and he was talking on the phone to Alex Sun," she said.
She also said Mr. Sun told them Les Jin, the commission's staff director, canceled the phone hookup "because it would undermine the policy of having commissioners go out in the field" for meetings.
When the panel met in Miami in June and in Detroit in July, teleconferencing was used to allow staffers remaining in Washington to participate in the meetings. Republican commissioners have accused Miss Berry of moving meetings out of Washington to avoid the scrutiny of news reporters and the House Judiciary Committee, both of which have criticized the civil rights commission.
Asked if she believes Miss Berry was involved in the decision not to provide speakerphones to the Republican commissioners, Mrs. Thernstrom said, "She's involved in everything
From <A href="http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/751199/posts:>This</a> thread.
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