Bush Appointments Averts Senate
Consent
Washington Post
By Thomas B. Edsall
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, January 5, 2006; Page A13
President Bush yesterday made a raft of controversial recess appointments,
including Julie L. Myers to head the Immigration and Customs Enforcement bureau
at the Department of Homeland Security, in a maneuver circumventing the need
for approval by the Senate.
Myers, a niece of former Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Richard B. Myers and
the wife of the chief of staff to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff,
had been criticized by Republicans and Democrats who charged that she lacked
experience in immigration matters.
Myers's nomination faced a bruising and potentially embarrassing fight on
the Senate floor, where Democrats were prepared to argue that politics, not
merit, drove her selection for an important job preventing terrorists and
weapons from entering the country.
Bush appointed Tracy A. Henke as executive director of the Office of State
and Local Government Coordination and Preparedness. She had been accused in her
politically appointed post at the Justice Department of demanding that
information about racial disparities in police treatment of blacks in traffic
cases be deleted from a news release.
The president avoided an abortion rights battle with the recess appointment
of former Maryland Republican gubernatorial candidate Ellen R. Sauerbrey as
assistant secretary of state for population, refugees and migration. Sauerbrey
is an opponent of abortion rights.
For the Federal Election Commission, Bush picked Justice Department employee
and former Fulton County, Ga., Republican chairman Hans von Spakovsky for one
of three openings. Von Spakovsky is widely viewed as a key player in two
disputed Justice Department decisions to overrule career staff in voting rights
cases.
A Democratic vacancy will be filled by union lawyer Robert D. Lenhard. He
has provoked opposition because of his participation as an attorney for the
American Federation of State, Council and Municipal Employees in efforts to
have the Supreme Court rule that the 2002 McCain-Feingold law is
unconstitutional. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) indicated that he would fight the
Lenhard nomination when Democratic leaders first announced it in 2003.
McCain and Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass) issued statements critical of the
appointments. Von Spakovsky may have undermined "enforcement of our civil
rights laws," Kennedy said. "By appointing von Spakovsky, the White House
missed an opportunity to fill this important position with a person clearly
committed to these fundamental rights."
The other FEC appointment went to Nevada lawyer Steven T. Walther, who has
close ties to Senate Minority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.).
At the Pentagon, Bush granted recess appointments to Gordon R. England as
deputy secretary of defense and Dorrance Smith, a former ABC producer, as
assistant secretary for public affairs.
The recess appointments will end at the conclusion of the current
congressional session in January 2007.
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