Cronyism Thursday
From Roll Call: ‘President Bush is expected to announce a list of recess appointments to a host of key federal positions as early as tonight or Thursday morning, including two controversial nominations that Democrats have attacked as patronage appointments for unqualified nominees.’
Personnel AnnouncementPresident George W. Bush today recess appointed the following individuals:
Floyd Hall, of New Jersey, to be a Member of the AMTRAK Reform Board.
Enrique J. Sosa, of Florida, to be a Member of the AMTRAK Reform Board.
Nadine Hogan, of Florida, to be a Member of the Board of Directors of the Inter-American Foundation (Private Representative).
Roger W. Wallace, of Texas, to be a Member of the Board of Directors of the Inter-American Foundation (Private Representative).
Gordon England, of Texas, to be Deputy Secretary of Defense.
Benjamin A. Powell, of Florida, to be General Counsel of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
Ronald E. Meisburg, of Virginia, to be General Counsel of the National Labor Relations Board.
Julie L. Myers, of Kansas, to be Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security (Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement).
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.
Arthur F. Rosenfeld, of Virginia, to be Federal Mediation and Conciliation Director at the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service.
Ellen R. Sauerbrey, of Maryland, to be Assistant Secretary of State (Population, Refugees, and Migration).
Dorrance Smith, of Virginia, to be Assistant Secretary of Defense (Public Affairs).
Robert D. Lenhard, of Maryland, to be a Member of the Federal Election Commission.
Steven T. Walther, of Nevada, to be a Member of the Federal Election Commission.
Hans Von Spakovsky, of Georgia, to be a Member of the Federal Election Commission.
Peter N. Kirsanow, of Ohio, to be a Member of the National Labor Relations Board.
Stephen Goldsmith, of Indiana, to be a Member of the Board of Directors of the Corporation for National and Community Service.
A special item to note: Julie Myers and Tracy Henke – two people in rather important DHS positions that were attacked on both sides of the aisle in the Senate as being patronage appointments. Why?
Former senate staffer Tracy Henke and Julie Myers (wife of Michael Chertoff’s chief of staff and niece of former Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Gen. Richard Myers) are the names the article mentions. Both are in line for DHS appointments.
- Sousy
January 5th, 2006 at 8:01 am
There’s another one we can file under ‘Things the ABC-CBS-NBC-CNN-MSNBC-FOX’ continuum will not be covering today. Let’s play an experiment, I’m going to take a few minutes and peruse what the cable outlets are presently broadcasting. An unscientific random sampling let’s call it. Be right back.
...
CNN: Rush Limbaugh’s honey Daryn Kagan on the forthcoming SAG Awards.
MSNBC: Husky voiced Rita Cosby with a miner-tragedy montage.
FOX News: Dr.Manny talkin’ about the health of the lone survivor from the mining incident.
Nothing to see in Washington D.C. folks- you nevermind ‘bout them crony appointments. You keep on thinkin’ bout those poor miner families now, yahear?
January 5th, 2006 at 1:57 pm
If it weren’t for all these crony appointments being made..perhaps we’d actually have a government that works for the people rather than strategically alligned against them. The particular mine in question was cited for over 200 safetey violations in 2005 alone – yet Elaine Chao’s Labor Dept. didn’t left a finger to close it. This is the kind of price the people pay for having a government that is for corporations first and foremost—the people who work for these corporate entities are mere chattel that can easily be replaced.