Hans von Spakovsky, as a top political appointee in Bush’s Justice Department, was a leading player in what McClatchy straightforwardly calls the administration’s “vote-suppression agenda.” When it came to voter disenfranchisement, von Spakovsky was a reliable member of Team Bush.
As a reward, Bush has tried to promote von Spakovsky to a six-year term on the Federal Election Commission, which has touched off a major fight with Senate Democrats, and effectively shut down the FEC altogether in an election year.
Yesterday, von Spakovsky withdrew from consideration, handing Dems a key victory.
Senate Democrats had refused for a year to confirm von Spakovsky, torpedoing the nominations of three other nominees and denying the FEC a quorum. Since Jan. 1, only two of the agency’s six commissioner slots have been filled. Bush, supported by GOP Senate leaders, had refused to withdraw von Spakovsky’s name.
Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) claimed victory yesterday and predicted that Bush would soon select a replacement who could quickly win confirmation along with four other pending nominees and put the FEC back on its feet.
“His withdrawal today is a victory for our electoral process. With Mr. von Spakovsky now removed, I anticipate that we will be able to swiftly put a functioning FEC in place,” Reid said.
It’s also a victory for Harry Reid. The Democratic caucus took a firm stand, saying von Spakovsky was simply unacceptable. The White House probably expected Dems to eventually cave and give Bush what he wants. They didn’t.
Given all the scandalous players in the Bush administration, it’s easy to get lost remembering which hack did what to whom, but in this case, von Spakovsky is one of the less honorable people in Bush World.
Von Spakovsky’s Senate confirmation hearing last June was noteworthy for many oddities, not the least of which was a letter sent to the rules committee by six former career professionals in the voting rights section of the Justice Department; folks who had worked under both Republican and Democratic administrations for a period that spanned 36 years. The letter urged the committee to reject von Spakovsky on the grounds that while at DoJ, he was one of the architects of a transformation in the voting rights section from its “historic mission to enforce the nation’s civil rights laws without regard to politics, to pursuing an agenda which placed the highest priority on the partisan political goals of the political appointees who supervised the Section.” The authors named him as the “point person for undermining the Civil Rights Division’s mandate to protect voting rights.”
Von Spakovsky’s response to these charges at his confirmation hearings? “I was not the decision maker,” he claimed. “I don’t remember that complaint at all,” he demurred. “It’s privileged,” he insisted. That’s the kind of bobbing and weaving that likely cost Alberto Gonzales his job. That the same absurd testimony from von Spakovsky might be rewarded with a professional upgrade is unfathomable.
And what was von Spakovsky trying to hide at his hearing? Why is the nation’s largest civil rights coalition urging that his confirmation be rejected? Because this man was one of the generals in a years-long campaign to use what we now know to be bogus claims of runaway “vote fraud” in America to suppress minority votes. Von Spakovsky was one of the people who helped melt down and then reshape the Justice Department into an instrument aimed at diminishing voter participation for partisan ends.
The point to remember here is that von Spakovsky has been at the heart of the indefensible, right-wing effort to prevent eligible voters from participating in elections. Tom DeLay’s re-redistricting scheme that violated the Voting Rights Act? Von Spakovsky approved it. Georgia’s re-redistricting scheme to disenfranchise black voters? Von Spakovsky approved that, too. The conservative campaign to fabricate an epidemic of voter fraud? Von Spakovsky helped create the scheme and execute it. When a U.S. Attorney in Minnesota discovered that Native American voters were being disenfranchised? It was Von Spakovsky who shut down the investigation.
Keep in mind, yesterday’s announcement wasn’t just a victory for Dems, voters, and the electoral process. The von Spakovsky withdrawal also means the end of the deadlock over the FEC, which had effectively ceased to function.
There are currently four vacancies on the FEC, two of which are to be filled with Republicans, two of which to be filled by Dems. Bush insisted von Spakovsky had to be one of the Repubicans. Dems, most notably Russ Feingold and Barack Obama, refused.
At that point, Bush and his Senate cohorts had a few options: 1) withdraw the von Spakovsky nomination, and replace him with a less ridiculous choice; 2) allow votes on the nominees individually, clearing the way for at least three uncontroversial nominees to clear the chamber easily; or 3) demand one vote on all four nominees, including von Spakovsky, refuse to compromise, and allow the FEC to shut down in an election year. Republicans picked Door #3.
Now, we’re more likely to see some progress. For the McCain campaign, that’s not good news — McCain has been playing fast and loose with election law for months. With no FEC, he acted with impunity. That will no longer be an option.