Most of us notice the ridiculous choices Bush makes for high-profile government posts and fret over the future. But the really scary appointments happen just below the surface with positions that are not as well known and with personnel whose names are completely unfamiliar to all but a select few.
For example, as of this week, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration has a new high-ranking official named Jonathan Snare.
U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao announced today that Jonathan L. Snare has been appointed the deputy assistant secretary for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).
Secretary Chao also announced that Snare, who has worked closely with OSHA in the Solicitor’s Office, will also serve as acting assistant secretary upon the departure of the current OSHA Assistant Secretary John Henshaw on Dec. 31, 2004.
Most of haven’t any idea who Jon Snare is or the fact that OSHA even has a deputy assistant secretary worth mentioning. But it’s yet another example of how the Bush administration operates.
As Jordan Barab and the Center for American Progress noted yesterday, Snare is a poor choice to help direct a government agency dealing with safety and health.
Aside from being the general counsel for the Republican Party of Texas during Tom DeLay’s ridiculous re-redistricting stunt, Snare is best known for his work as a lobbyist for Metabolife, the producer and nation’s largest seller of ephedra “dietary supplements,” which was banned after 155 people died from its use. Under Snare’s political leadership, Metabolife spent more than $4 million between 1998 and 2000 in Texas to lobby against state regulations of these dangerous supplements, asking lawmakers to let “the free market” deal with the public health controversy.
Just as importantly, there have also been accusations that Metabolife attempted to exert influence over Texas officials through political connections to the Bush administration while Snare was the company’s top lobbyist in Texas.
It’s only natural, therefore, that Snare has been rewarded with a government position dealing with the health and safety of American workers. Barab raised a number of important questions in light of the Labor Department’s announcement:
First, who is vetting people over at the Department of Labor, the same people who vetted Bernard Kerik for Secretary of Homeland Security?
Second, what does this say about how much this administration really cares about public health in general?
And finally, is this really the person that American workers can put their trust in to oversee their workplace health and safety rights? Does this appointment pass the laugh test?
The answers, in order, would be “probably,” “a great deal,” and “I hope not.”