Bush Nominee Needs a Refresher Course In Civics
Hans von Spakovsky is among the GOP hacks who perverted the U.S. Department of Justice - trashing constitutional principles, rewarding partisanship over competence and converting the entire machinery into an arm of the Republican Party. His specialty was suppressing voting by Americans of color, who are more likely to support Democrats; he played a starring role in a nationwide effort to disenfranchise poor blacks, Latinos and Native Americans. Now, Mr. von Spakovsky is seeking Senate approval for a six-year term on the Federal Election Commission, which enforces federal campaign finance laws. (President Bush gave Mr. von Spakovsky a recess appointment in January 2006, but he must have Senate confirmation for a full term.) The vote ought to be easy: No, no and no way.
A group of former Justice Department professionals - including a former chief of the Civil Rights Division’s Voting Section - have stepped forward to oppose his nomination. According to The Washington Post, more than half the career lawyers in the Voting Section left in protest during his tenure. Mr. von Spakovsky’s blatant disregard for the constitutionally guaranteed right to the franchise should disqualify him from even serving as a volunteer poll worker, much less a commissioner on the FEC. He is a leading light among the Republican activists who have whipped up the bogeyman of fraudulent voting, claiming that illegal ballots can only be stopped by stringent requirements, such as state-sponsored photo IDs, at the ballot box.
Actually, illegal voters are about as common as honest Bush appointees in the Justice Department.
A small federal agency called the Election Assistance Commission hired researchers who found “little polling place fraud.” (The report’s conclusions were downplayed and their release delayed by the GOP-dominated Election Assistance Commission; earlier, Mr. von Spakovsky tried to get one of the researchers fired.) The real agenda was to throw up enough obstacles at the ballot box to shave off a few thousand votes that would probably go to Democrats, enough for Republicans to win in close elections.
Appointed to the Justice Department after serving Mr. Bush valiantly in the Florida vote-count debacle in 2000, Mr. von Spakovsky more or less took over the Voting Section, which until then had worked to ensure that all citizens had access to the ballot box - especially citizens from ethnic groups whose history included the harshest forms of disenfranchisement. Mr. von Spakovsky turned that mission on its head. Under his de facto leadership, the Voting Section became a mechanism for disenfranchising certain voting blocs.
After Republican Tom Heffelfinger, then Minnesota’s U.S. attorney, tried to scrutinize a new state photo ID requirement that he believed would disenfranchise Native Americans - a reliable Democratic voting bloc in the state - Mr. von Spakovsky essentially blocked the investigation. (Though Mr. Heffelfinger resigned on his own, his name later surfaced on a list of U.S. attorneys targeted for replacement.)
Mr. von Spakovsky supported the mid-decade gerrymandering of legislative districts by the GOP-dominated Texas Legislature. And he informed Arizona officials that they did not have to provide provisional ballots to voters who showed up at the polls without proper ID, an interpretation clearly at odds with the plain words of the Help America Vote Act of 2002.
Further, it was Mr. von Spakovsky who was largely responsible for clearing the way for an overly restrictive photo ID law passed by the Georgia General Assembly in 2005 (and since blocked by the courts). He overruled career attorneys in the Voting Section who believed the requirement would disproportionately disenfranchise black voters in the state. He should have recused himself from that case, since shortly before this he had anonymously published an article in a legal journal arguing for stringent photo ID requirements at the polls, claiming that there was no evidence such laws would hurt minority voters.
Trying to drum up a little sympathy with dubious Democratic senators at his recent confirmation hearing, Mr. von Spakovsky reminded them that he was born to humble immigrants who had fled Nazi Germany and communist Russia. But the young Hans seems to have drawn the wrong lessons from his parents’ experiences. He needs to be sent back to ninth-grade civics class, not rewarded with a position on the FEC.
Cynthia Tucker is editorial page editor for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Her column appears Mondays in The Sun. Her e-mail is cynthia@ajc.com.
© 2007 The Baltimore Sun
I have sympathy for all the decent Republicans who have resigned in horror from this present administration. I do believe Bush has set a record for outrage resignations. And it’s good to know there are many right thinking people - ethically speaking - regardless of their political beliefs.
Mr. von Spaskovsky looks to be a strong competitor for third place behind Cheney and Gonzales for the abuse of power award (although personally I award them a tie for first).
kathyodat, i think most of the people who resigned from DOJ were career civil service employees with mixed political affiliation w/no real ideological axes to grind. people just doing their job, who found their working conditions so onerous and blatantly politicized they couldn’t take it anymore.
the bush touch: everything he handles turns to shit.
this DOJ/voting rights thing has revealed a lot about the dumbocrat party. this issue alone could seize the reins of power of the dems for a generation; will they take it?
probably not. why not? b/c they are a faux opposition party. real opposition would make empower americans about their gov’t, something the dems don’t really have an interest in doing.
The bunk about the importance of leaders, leadership and following the leader that the ruling class conservatives have been feeding the sheeple forever is working just as well as their bunk about the flag, the cross, the homeland security, GM, Exxon, Lockheed, Marlboro, Coca Cola and on and on. Some media guy just wrote a book about brave leaders that were not afraid to go against popular opinion. Great. We put them in there to represent the democratic majority and when they don’t, they’re “courageous” instead of “sellouts”. So much for leadership. If you think you and 300,000,000 other “leaders” can do better than 500 sellouts, check out:
http://ni4d.us/
“refresher course”? Only someone as clueless as Cynthia Tucker could assume they ever took the course in the first place.
ezeflyer, that knife has two edges. When Dennis Kucinich as mayor of Cleveland refused to sell the municipal light company to a corporate predator, the bank colluded to push Cleveland into bankruptcy and Dennis was the fall guy, blamed by the media and thrown out of office by the electorate. But 10 years later, he was recognized as the hero he really was and vindicated. The problem is that popular opinion can be manipulated by the media, and actually has been all through history.
Paul Wellstone went against popular opinion when he decided to vote against the occupation, although when the public started supporting him for integrity, it cost him his life. Politics is a dangerous business when the Republicans are trying to take control of Congress. Shrinking the Republican Party to the point of irrelevency would make life a lot safer for the rest of us.
Here in Oregon, we have the initiative process, and people have made some disastrous choices, but they’re wising up and voting more cautiously. I agree that we need to become citizen legislators, however bumpy that road might be.
kathyodat:
You can’t be sure the public will always make the right decision (Swiss direct democracy and the jews), but you can almost be sure representatives together won’t. It’s great that you’re supporting the http://ni4d.us/ in spite of your objection.
COmarc:
I agree with most of your posts. But I do not agree on your bad opinion of Cynthia Tucker. In fact, I think she is one of our finest.
re: the bush touch: everything he handles turns to shit.
if he was an anime character Bush would be the Fool Mental De-alchemist
ezeflyer, it’s not really an objection, I believe the public needs to grow up and I don’t expect it to be an easy smooth path, but it is a necessary one.
If everyone took a refresher course in Civics 101 we would all be better informed and more aware of the travisties that have been waged against the Constitution, we would be more aware when the rug is being pulled out from under us and we would be able to distinquish between real news and propaganda. We would be able to vote where ever we live, who ever we are because we wouldn’t give in to ridiculous new rules imposed on voting. We would know our rights and act accordingly. In fact, the government department that gives out brochures on all sorts of information should make a pamphlet on Voting Rights available to every registered voter.
MY,MY,how time flies .it seems like just the other day,we were appalled that reagan’s asst atty gen for the civil rights division,was not in favor of the proactive zealous enforcement of the legislation a generation of african americans,and their allies had risked life and limb to pass into law.william bradford reynolds at his worst did not approach von spakovsky’s reactionary position-turning the whole purpose of the voting rights division on its head.what kind of diabolical guy uses the governmental infrastructure intended to safeguard voter rights,to disenfranchise minority voters,and attempts to legitimatize his treachery by invoking the memory of family members marginalized by nazis and commies? what political reward is worth disgracing oneself in such a craven manner?
Actually a course in civics isn’t necessary to determine if our government officials are lying to us. Just look at their lips, if the lips are moving chances are they are lying. This guy should be no surprise however, most of Bush’s agency appointments have gone to people that are completely wrong for the job. Look no farther than the Attorney General or the dipshit he sent to the UN during a Congressional recess.
I don’t think George knows anybody who is competent and decent.