XPost: alt.bible, alt.atheism, talk.religion   
   XPost: alt.religion   
   From: mani@sympatico.ca   
      
   As usual this sort of crap isn't in the news   
      
   December 17, 2007   
   Editorial NYTimes   
   The Election Watchdogs Going Missing   
      
   The Senate is ducking its responsibility to keep the Federal Election   
   Commission stocked with qualified appointees to police the already   
   booming election season. If a nasty partisan standoff is not soon   
   resolved, the six-member regulatory panel could be left with just two   
   commissioners remaining and unable to work. This is a ridiculous   
   prospect — and an invitation to even more scheming and corner-cutting   
   — in what is sure to be a multibillion-dollar campaign.   
      
   At the heart of the problem is President Bush’s misbegotten choice for   
   the commission of Hans von Spakovsky, a fiercely partisan Republican,   
   notorious for his anti-voting-rights bias as a Justice Department   
   appointee. Mr. Spakovsky supported Republican initiatives   
   gerrymandering the Texas Legislature and mandating photo IDs in a   
   Georgia law transparently aimed at disenfranchising minority voters.   
   Career Justice lawyers resigned in protest of his extremism.   
      
   President Bush circumvented the Senate confirmation process, using a   
   recess appointment to force Mr. Spakovsky temporarily onto the F.E.C.   
   this year. His appointment and two other recess appointments lapse   
   with the new year. Joined with an additional vacancy, the commission   
   will not have a quorum. Meanwhile, the Democratic and Republican   
   leaders are deadlocked, holding up each other’s appointees to a panel   
   that is required to be evenly bipartisan, three to three.   
      
   If merit or sense carried the day, the president would scratch Mr.   
   Spakovsky, who is not the right choice for the job. He hasn’t, and the   
   Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell, is standing by the White   
   House’s man. If Mr. McConnell and Harry Reid, the Senate majority   
   leader, can’t negotiate a solution, Mr. Reid should put the issue to a   
   floor fight. This would spotlight what a party hack the Republicans   
   want for a commission that is supposed to keep electoral politics   
   clean and fair.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)