One of the Democratic tendencies that seem to bother the netroots and progressive activists more than anything is “deals” congressional leaders strike with Republicans. Invariably, these “compromises” tend to concede far too much to the GOP, and worse, lead to a problematic result that could have been avoided.
Take Hans von Spakovsky, for example. He served as a top political appointee in Bush’s Justice Department, and was a leading player in what McClatchy labeled the administration’s “vote-suppression agenda.” When it came to voter disenfranchisement, von Spakovsky was a reliable member of Team Bush. That’s not a compliment.
Naturally, the president decided to give him a promotion, rewarding von Spakovsky with a six-year term on the Federal Election Commission. Slate’s Dahlia Lithwick recently made a very powerful case that the nomination itself is insulting, and if senators have any sense, they’ll reject von Spakovsky out of hand.
And they would have, if the leadership hadn’t struck a deal that cleared the way for von Spakovsky’s confirmation. Thankfully, as Roll Call reported, the deal was scuttled.
Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) on Wednesday derailed a plan blessed by Senate leaders to vote on controversial Federal Election Commission White House nominee Hans von Spakovsky, a move giving Democrats time to breathe in the ongoing Senate stalemate on FEC nominees.
According to Democratic Senate aides, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) struck a deal mid-week to hotline four FEC slots that must be confirmed by the Senate before next year. As part of the proposed deal, a voice vote on fellow commission nominees only would take place if no Senators objected to von Spakovsky’s nomination.
But a vote on the deal, which was expected to come to the floor as early as today, appeared to be off by mid-day Wednesday after Obama — and unconfirmed others — voiced concerns that von Spakovsky’s nomination was too controversial not to go through regular floor proceedings.
Good. I realize that FEC nominations aren’t exactly high profile, and one has to be pretty clued in to even know who von Spakovsky is, but it was disappointing, to put it mildly, to think Dems were just going to let this guy slide by.
For those of you who want more background on von Spakovsky, I hope readers will take a couple of minutes to read Lithwick’s whole piece, but the point to remember here is that he 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.
The agreement approved by the Senate Democratic leadership would have cleared von Spakovsky’s nomination to the FEC as part of a package deal that would have let a Democrat onto the same commission. I realize that deals like this make Washington work, but Von Spakovsky is, for lack of a better word, dangerous. He no sooner belongs on the Federal Elections Commission than he does the board of the NAACP.
As Lithwick concluded, “More than almost anyone else — perhaps even including Alberto Gonzales — Hans von Spakovsky represents a Justice Department turned on its head for partisan purposes. Even if a seat on the FEC is merely symbolic, the last thing Democrats should be doing is confirming to that seat someone who symbolizes contempt for what it means to cast a vote.”
Apparently, some Dems haven’t forgotten that.