Recess appointment to FEC is an abomination to democracy

Hans Von Spakovsky, of Georgia, to be a Member of the Federal Election
Commission.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/16/AR2005121601717_pf.html


Bush Picks Controversial Nominees for FEC

By Thomas B. Edsall and Dan Eggen
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, December 17, 2005; A09


...


In a letter to Senate Rules Committee Chairman Trent Lott (R-Miss.), Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) wrote that he is "extremely troubled" by the von Spakovsky nomination. Kennedy contends that von Spakovsky "may be at the heart of the political interference that is undermining the <Justice> Department's enforcement of federal civil laws."

Career Justice Department lawyers involved in a Georgia case said von Spakovsky pushed strongly for approval of a state program requiring voters to have photo identification. A team of staff lawyers that examined the case recommended 4 to 1 that the Georgia plan should be rejected because it would harm black voters; the recommendation was overruled by von Spakovsky and other senior officials in the Civil Rights Division.

Before working in the Justice Department, von Spakovsky was the Republican Party chairman in Fulton County, Ga., and served on the board of the Voter Integrity Project, which advocated regular purging of voter roles to prevent felons from casting ballots.

In a brief telephone interview, von Spakovsky played down his role in policy decisions in the Civil Rights Division. "I'm just a career lawyer who works in the front office of civil rights," he said. He noted that the department has rules against career lawyers talking to reporters....

http://www.tompaine.com/articles/20060105/cronies_at_the_fec.php

The FEC has six commissioners appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate, with no more than three members to be affiliated with a single political party. Although only one position was actually empty, four of the six seats on the commission were technically vacant, with commissioners serving despite expired terms. Thus, President Bush had a unique opportunity to appoint a full two-thirds of the commission. Suddenly urgent, however, the opportunity was not. In fact, the circumstances have existed since August. But because few things unite Republicans and Democrats like incumbency, the last four months produced not even a single appointment until last night when President Bush announced the recess appointments of three individuals: Robert Lenhard, Steven Walther and Hans von Spakovsky. Though unstated by the White House, the implication is that current GOP Commissioner David Mason will remain as an acting commissioner indefinitely.

The announcement of recess appointments ignored a request by the bipartisan sponsors of the nation’s principal federal campaign finance law. Recently, Senators John McCain, R-Ariz., and Russell Feingold, D-Wi., and Representatives Christopher Shays, R-Conn., and Marty Meehan, D-Mass., sent President Bush a letter urging him not to fill FEC vacancies via recess appointments. Just as importantly, the letter recommended that the president seize the “rare opportunity to change the makeup of the ineffective FEC” by nominating individuals who are “professionally qualified, independent-minded, and publicly credible.” In Washington such advice is heresy. Not surprisingly, it was treated accordingly.

Just as former FEMA Director Michael Brown was longer on connections than qualifications, so too are the recess appointees. As if to underscore Washington’s current culture of corruption, one of the Republican appointees, Hans von Spakovsky, played a critical role in upholding DeLay’s controversial Texas redistricting plan. Along with other Bush appointees at the Department of Justice, Von Spakovsky overruled the unanimous opinions of DOJ’s staff attorneys who concluded that the plan violated the Voting Rights Act. Von Spakovsky will feel right at home as an FEC commissioner since, at DOJ, he was largely responsible for undermining the very civil rights laws he was employed to enforce.

Rest assured, however, that the dynamic is deeply bipartisan. President Bush accepted Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid’s recommendations of Reno lawyer Steven Walther and labor lawyer Robert Lenhard to fill the Democratic posts. Walther, who served as an attorney for Reid in 1998, has no experience in campaign finance law. More troublesome is Lenhard, who is on record as opposing the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA). Lenhard worked as counsel with one of the many labor organizations that unsuccessfully challenged the constitutionality of BCRA in the courts. While not certain, it appears Sen. Reid thus acted covertly to undercut a popular law that—when the nation’s attention was trained on it—he helped to pass. The whole point is that the public was cheated of the opportunity to know. Yesterday in Washington was not a time for politicians to be offering their usual “trust me” bromides.