Administration -- Interim Bushies

January 8, 2008

by Faiz Shakir, Amanda Terkel, Satyam Khanna, Matt Corley, and Ali Frick

ADMINISTRATION

Interim Bushies

Last week when a reporter asked White House Press Secretary Dana Perino about the Bush administration's "most important priorities" for 2008, Perino took the opportunity to bash Congress. "[I]t really is unfortunate that Congress has not moved forward on its obligation to have hearings and to hold votes," said Perino, "because the president has nominated very good people." Yet senators are actually opposing only a handful of the President's most controversial nominees. Facing Senate resistance, Bush has tried to grant recess appointments. As of June 4, Bush had filled 105 full-time positions with such appointments, compared to 42 recess appointments by President Clinton at a comparable point in his presidency. The Senate, however, has wised up to Bush's tactic. During the recent recesses, Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) kept the Senate open in short pro forma sessions, blocking Bush from "doing an end run around the Senate and the Constitution with his controversial nominees." Rather than cooperating with the Senate on compromise nominees, Bush has chosen to leave "whole agencies of the executive branch to be run largely by acting or interim appointees," who are authorized to serve for just 210 days without any congressional approval.

A STICKLER FOR DISLMANTLING MINE SAFETY: One of Bush's most recent interim appointments went to Richard Stickler, a former Murray Beth Energy executive. Stickler oversaw the mismanagement of August's Crandall Canyon mine collapse in Utah. Nine men died, including six trapped after the initial cave-in and three rescue workers. Many safety experts at the time questioned why the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) allowed "anyone, including rescuers, into the still-dangerous mine." The Senate had twice rejected Stickler's nomination to the MSHA post, in part because the mines he managed "incurred injury rates double the national average." Yet Bush defiantly granted him a recess appointment in Oct. 2006. After Stickler's term as assistant secretary expired on Dec. 31, his bio was quickly removed from the MSHA website earlier this week, and on Thursday last week, MSHA officials revealed that they had a new chief -- agency staffer John Pallasch. Pallasch's 15 minutes of fame lasted just three days. The Bush administration was evidently so happy with Stickler's job performance that the President renamed him as acting assistant secretary. Stickler's bio has also reappeared on the MSHA site, and the White House has renominated him for the permanent position.

A POLITICIZED TOOL: The Senate's most recent pro forma sessions were particularly targeted at preventing the recess appointment of Steven Bradbury, currently acting chief of the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel. In 2005, Bradbury -- who functions as a tool of Vice President Cheney's office -- authored two secret memos endorsing "the harshest interrogation techniques ever used by the CIA." "What we know is troubling. Mr. Bradbury refuses to repudiate un-American and inhumane tactics such as waterboarding and mock executions," said Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL). "There are also serious and unanswered questions about Mr. Bradbury's role in NSA warrantless surveillance programs." In October, Durbin and Sens. Russ Feingold (D-WI) Ted Kennedy (D-MA) wrote a letter to Bush calling on him to find a more independent nominee. In July 2006, Bradbury testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee and proclaimed that "the president is always right."

LEFTOVER 'BAGGAGE': In November, Bush administration officials boasted that they "outmaneuvered" the Senate Foreign Relations Committee "to install a loyalist in the top arms control post" at the State Department. Last February, Bush nominated John C. Rood as Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security, a position previously held by former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton. Rood's Senate confirmation stalled, however, after Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Joseph Biden (D-DE) and ranking Republican Richard Lugar (R-IN) objected to his nomination. The administration considered installing Rood as a recess appointment, but Biden said they would "not get another single nominee for anything at all" if they did. So instead, Bush simply appointed him as "acting" undersecretary. In this post, Rood's job includes dealing with the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, "a decades-old arms control agreement between Washington and Moscow, which Rood spent his first year in the White House dismantling." Rood once described arms control as "baggage from the Cold War."

HEALTH CARE -- U.S. HEALTH SYSTEM RANKS WORST IN PREVENATABLE DEATHS: In Saturday's ABC/Facebook presidential debate, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani said, "The reality is that, with all of its infirmities and difficulties, we have the best health care system in the world." It's a claim conservatives like to tout. Last month, President Bush insisted, "We have fabulous health care in America, just so you know." He added, "[B]efore people start griping about the health care system here...compare it with other systems around the world." Today, researchers from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine released a report that ranked the United States "worst among 19 countries in the number of deaths that could have been prevented through better access to timely and effective health care. ... Had the United States performed as well as the top three countries -- France, Japan and Australia -- it would have seen about 101,000 fewer deaths per year." All three countries have publicly-financed health systems. One of the study's researchers, Ellen Nolte, "said the large number of Americans who lack any type of health insurance...probably was a key factor" in the low ranking.

CIVIL RIGHTS -- VOTER ID REQUIREMENTS LIMIT POLITICAL ENGAGEMENT: A new Brown University study finds that "requiring voters to present identification at the polls leads to lower levels of voter participation" and discourages "legal immigrants from becoming citizens, particularly for blacks and Hispanics, reducing odds of naturalization by more than 15 percent." Last year, legislatures in 27 states passed laws to increase identification requirements to register to vote or cast ballots. The Supreme Court will hear arguments on Indiana's law requiring voters to present a current state-issued photo identification card tomorrow, just over a year after a U.S. appeals court barred the state of Georgia from requiring voters to obtain government-issued photo IDs. Though supporters of voter ID laws claim that they are necessary to prevent voter fraud, as The New York Times has reported, there is "virtually no evidence of any organized effort to skew federal elections." Such laws have been called "modern-day equivalents of poll taxes and literacy tests that kept Black voters from the ballot box in the Jim Crow era." The study finds that the suppressive effects of voter ID laws affect "not only minorities, but also persons with less than a high school education and less than $15,000 income"

HEALTH CARE -- NEW HEALTH CARE AD: 'EVERY AMERICAN DESERVES CHENEYCARE': Last month, the California Nurses Association and the National Nurses Organizing Committee ran ads in Iowa newspapers advocating for a single-payer health-care bill, highlighting the fact that Vice President Dick Cheney has benefited from his government-provided coverage. "If he were anyone else, he'd probably be dead by now," considering his long history of health problems, claimed the ad. The group's newest round of ads, which ran "in eight New Hampshire papers" last Friday and went "national" yesterday, dubbed a new name for "guaranteed, publicly-funded health care for all Americans": CheneyCare. They ask "readers to go to CheneyCare.org and sign a petition in support of CheneyCare for all Americans." Cheney's office "did not respond to a request for comment" by the Washington Examiner, but in December, when the original ads ran, Cheney spokesperson Megan Mitchell said that "something this outrageous does not warrant a response." As The Progress Report noted at the time, what is actually outrageous is the fact that there are roughly 47 million people in America without health insurance, including 3.2 million children. President Bush has twice vetoed legislation that would have expanded coverage to four million more children.

"[I]n a marked shift from his usual upbeat economic assessments," President Bush "conceded that the nation faces 'economic challenges' due to rising oil prices, the home mortgage crisis and a weakening job market." Though Bush insisted he "recognize[d] the reality of the situation," the White House has refused to say that the economy might be heading towards a recession.

In a "controversial" report, Merrill Lynch "said that Friday's employment report, which sent shares tumbling worldwide, confirmed that the US is in the first month of a recession." Yesterday, White House spokesman Tony Fratto claimed he didn't "know of anyone predicting a recession."

"Two rockets fired from Lebanon exploded in northern Israel before dawn today, according to the Israeli military, part of growing violence in the region ahead of a visit by the US president, George Bush."

"For seven years, President Bush has been a distant defender of Israel," but when "he arrives here Wednesday on his first presidential visit, however, Bush will find an ambivalent Israeli public" that is "critical of U.S. setbacks that have made the region feel more threatening."

"Alarmed at the increasingly populist tone of the 2008 political campaign," U.S. Chamber of Commerce President Tom Donohue said his organization "would spend in excess of the approximately $60 million it spent in the last presidential cycle" to defeat "anti-business" candidates. The organization will be "so strong that when it bites you in the butt, you bleed," said Donohue.

A bipartisan group of former top lawmakers and government officials convened yesterday to discuss the "excessive partisanship" in politics today. But rather than support an independent candidate for president, "several leading participants took pains to say that they had no intention of abandoning their own parties in the election."

Sibel Edmonds, a former FBI translator who has been under a Bush administration gag order, told the Sunday Times that foreign intelligence agents had enlisted the support of U.S. officials to obtain nuclear secrets. Brad Blog has much more.

"A Canadian government panel recommended Monday that prices be set for greenhouse gas emissions and that taxes, caps and emissions trading plans be quickly established."

And finally: According to the web site CelebStoner.com, Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) the "stoners" top pick for President. Ben Widdicombe writes: "Site editor Steve Bloom tells me: "Ron Paul is the stoners' Republican Prez candidate of choice.'"

The research team that brings you The Progress Report and ThinkProgress.org needs spring interns! Click here for more information.

"The number of violent crimes reported nationwide appears to have fallen modestly in the first half of 2007, signaling the first notable decline in violence in two years, the FBI said yesterday."

NEW JERSEY: "New Jersey has become the fifth state to formally apologize for its role in slavery."

MICHIGAN: "Michigan's leading anti-abortion group said it would not give up on trying to pass another ban on so-called partial-birth abortion."

TEXAS: Environmental groups sue Shell Oil, claiming it has released pollutants from its Houston refinery "that are well above state and federal limits."

THINK PROGRESS: FLASHBACK: In 2004, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) said "we're going to be in Iraq for five or six years."

HORSE'S MOUTH: Bill Kristol's first column for The New York Times will already require a correction.

ESCHATON: Conservative blog Red State claims that its inability to find a good website developer is part of a liberal conspiracy.

MEDIA MATTERS: On Fox News's The Live Desk, conservative "strategist" Christine O'Donnell calls Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) "anti-American."

"Listen, my friend, we're going to be there [in Iraq] for five or six years."
-- Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), 2/25/04

VERSUS

"[I am prepared to keep troops in Iraq for] one hundred years, one thousand years, ten thousand years or until the earth collapses under global climate change."
-- McCain, 1/6/08

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