Bush nominees may face trouble

By Sridhar Krishnaswami

WASHINGTON, JAN. 2.As the President elect, Mr. George Bush, tries to give finishing touches to his Cabinet, the word from Capitol Hill and his political detractors is that some of his nominees will not have a smooth sailing time during the confirmation process in the Senate.

Civil rights groups are targeting at least two of Mr. Bush's nominees very intensely - Mr. John Ashcroft, Attorney General- designate, and Ms. Christine Todd Whitman, administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency.

The civil rights leader, Mr. Jesse Jackson, has said that Democratic Senators will be confronted and demanded that they vote against the nomination of the former Senator, Mr. Ashcroft, who lost his election in Missouri last November to Governor Mel Carnahan who died in a plane crash but whose name nevertheless remained on the ballot.

Mr. Ashcroft is generally seen as having impeccable credentials but his critics maintain that the Republican espouses very strong conservative ideas including his anti-abortion stand. Mr. Ashcroft may face trouble over his leading role in killing the nomination of the Missouri Supreme Court Judge, Mr. Ronnie White, to the Federal Bench. Mr. White is African American.

The former Republican Senator has been vigourously fighting off the charges maintaining that he has supported 90 per cent of the African American Judicial nominees and among other things as Governor of Missouri from 1985 to 1993 he had signed into law a state holiday honouring Martin Luther King.

On charges of racism, Mr. Ashcroft has said that he opposed Mr. White because he could not support a ``pro criminal'' jurist habitually looking for technicalities benefitting dangerous killers.

Mr. Ashcroft's nomination is expected to be tough with suggestion in some quarters being that the Democrats who have been sore at their party losing out on the Presidential election may be itching for a first major fight - or a major spar - with the incoming Republican President. And the appointment is a high profile one indeed given that he will be the nation's top law enforcement official.

Mr. Jackson's warning has to do with a perception that out of collegiality Senators generally support former colleagues. In fact, Presidents are known to pick well known and respected law makers to avoid bruising fights on Capitol Hill.

In the case of Mr. Ashcroft, Mr. Jackson has argued that Democratic law makers may have to choose between collegiality and civil rights and social justice. What troubles senior Democrats is also Mr. Ashcroft's views on abortion and gun control and an impression that as Attorney General he would not strictly enforce laws, for instance, that ban violence against abortion clinics and gun control.

Civil rights groups and activists have also picked on Ms. Whitman because of racial profiling by the police in the state of New Jersey and that as Governor she was photographed frisking a black youth who had been detained by police.

Ms. Whitman, a moderate and supporter of abortion rights, has argued that her state was the first to admit racial profiling and take steps to rectify the problem. And as far as the frisking incident in 1996, she has admitted that she crossed the line from being an observer to a participant.

Mr. Bush, who spent the New Year's long weekend at the Crawford Ranch in Texas, has three Cabinet Secretaries left to nominate for the Departments of Energy, Transportation and Labour. Other high profile positions left to be named include that for the U.N. and the CIA.

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Section  : International
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