Presidential recess powers are supposed to be reserved for filling urgent vacancies when the Senate is in recess, which is why it’s so frustrating to see Bush abuse this power to an unprecedented extent. As far as the White House is concerned, the notion of Senate confirmation might as well cease to exist.
The president announced not one, not two, but 17 recess appointments late yesterday afternoon. What’s worse, many of these officials faced stiff resistance in the Senate. Rather than allow lawmakers to fulfill their advise-and-consent responsibilities, Bush effectively sidestepped the Senate altogether by appointing a motley crew of hacks, cronies, and Michael Brown-like incompetents.
There are quite a few embarrassments here, but I’d like to highlight a few of my favorites.
* Ellen R. Sauerbrey, of Maryland, to be Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees, and Migration — Sauerbrey has literally no background in setting up refugee camps, delivering emergency supplies, and mobilizing international responses to humanitarian crises. Her only “qualification” seems to be that she’s a Republican activist looking for a job in the administration.
* Dorrance Smith, of Virginia, to be Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs — Smith raised eyebrows last year that Al-Jazeera “operated on behalf of terrorists and that U.S. networks aided them by televising Al-Jazeera’s images.” Smith wrote, “Osama bin Laden, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and al Qaeda have a partner in Al-Jazeera and, by extension, most networks in the U.S. This partnership is a powerful tool for the terrorists in the war in Iraq.” For a high-ranking official in charge of Public Affairs, Smith is clearly the wrong person for the job.
* Hans Von Spakovsky, of Georgia, to be a Member of the Federal Election Commission — Republicans in Georgia created a new “voter-identification law” last year, which was ultimately struck down by a federal court, which forced Georgians without driver’s licenses (disproportionately poor, black and elderly citizens) to pay for a state ID card in order to vote. The city of Atlanta, with a large African-American population, did not have a single facility where the cards were sold. Hans Von Spakovsky, Bush’s choice for the Federal Election Commission, helped create Georgia’s system.
* Julie L. Myers, of Kansas, to be Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security, Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) — The ICE bureau is responsible for hunting down money launderers, sanctions busters, and human traffickers, and is the sole enforcer of immigration laws inside the country. Myers has no management experience at any level. As Sen. George Voinovich (R-Ohio) said during Myers’ confirmation hearing, “I think that we ought to have a meeting with (Homeland Security Secretary) Mike Chertoff … to ask him… why he thinks you’re qualified for the job. Because based on your resume, I don’t think you are.”
* Tracy A. Henke, of Missouri, to be Executive Director of the Office of State and Local Government Coordination and Preparedness at the Department of Homeland Security — Henke’s claim to fame is doing some creative editing to government reports in order to remove information about racial-profiling data, and then forcing an experienced and capable public official who disagreed out of his job.
All of these officials needed Senate approval to fill key vacancies, all ran into opposition, and managed to sidestep the process by a Bush recess appointment.
Just when you think you couldn’t lose any more respect for the president, Bush manages to find a way.