DING DONG, THE WITCH IS DEAD
Yesterday the president did something that should have been done a long time ago:
Anyway, whatever happened to "I serve at the president's pleasure"? What is she, a federal judge? No, but she does seem to be the jury and executioner. In her role at the commission, she doesn't have any actual power -- she can't put anyone away -- but she can cry racism at the drop of a hat. And so she has, most recently, and notably, at Jeb Bush over the 2000 election.
Yet it would be a mistake to think her legacy is simply one of clashes with conservatives. Before Florida, Berry nearly destroyed the lefter-than-NPR radio network Pacifica (which she then chaired) when she insisted on throwing out the white guys. And a decade before that, the Washington Monthly noted her "bitter single-mindedness" and concurrent tendency to cause problems for those in her corner.
In fact, the most prominent anti-Berry web presence comes not from the right, but from the left. So I assume my liberal readers can join with me and say: Good riddance.
UPDATE, 5:33 p.m. -- It turns out that Kirsanow himself has had a commentary on the current situation at NRO since yesterday morning. It doesn't sound like he'll be missing Ms. Berry, either.
Yesterday the president did something that should have been done a long time ago:
President Bush on Monday moved to replace Mary Frances Berry, the outspoken chairwoman of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission who has argued with every president since Jimmy Carter appointed her to the panel a quarter century ago.Remember, "outspoken" is journalist-speak for "disagreeable":
But Berry balked at leaving now, arguing through a spokesman that she and vice chairman Cruz Reynoso, who also is being replaced, have terms that run until midnight Jan. 21, 2005. The White House maintained that their six-year terms expired Sunday and that Berry and Reynoso had been replaced.Actually, it turns out Reagan did try to sack her back in the 1980s, but litigation saved her. This inexcusably long tenure would make her the J. Edgar Hoover of the race racket. Larry Elder points out:
[W]hen President George W. Bush attempted to appoint a black man to the commission, Peter Kirsanow, Mary Frances Berry filed suit to prevent Kirsanow from joining the commission. She unsuccessfully argued that the current occupant on the board still had several years left in her term.I'm not familiar with the commission's tenure rules, but apparently this is a recurring theme. Clinton made her chair in 1993 and reappointed her in 1999, one (technically, two) of his many ill-advised picks in the name of diversity (think Janet Reno and Jocelyn Elders, just to name a few who got through). President Bush has been assembling a Cabinet that "looks like America" too, but somehow he's managed to avoid his party's malcontents.
Anyway, whatever happened to "I serve at the president's pleasure"? What is she, a federal judge? No, but she does seem to be the jury and executioner. In her role at the commission, she doesn't have any actual power -- she can't put anyone away -- but she can cry racism at the drop of a hat. And so she has, most recently, and notably, at Jeb Bush over the 2000 election.
Yet it would be a mistake to think her legacy is simply one of clashes with conservatives. Before Florida, Berry nearly destroyed the lefter-than-NPR radio network Pacifica (which she then chaired) when she insisted on throwing out the white guys. And a decade before that, the Washington Monthly noted her "bitter single-mindedness" and concurrent tendency to cause problems for those in her corner.
In fact, the most prominent anti-Berry web presence comes not from the right, but from the left. So I assume my liberal readers can join with me and say: Good riddance.
UPDATE, 5:33 p.m. -- It turns out that Kirsanow himself has had a commentary on the current situation at NRO since yesterday morning. It doesn't sound like he'll be missing Ms. Berry, either.
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