Fire Les Jin
The civil-rights commission needs a new staff director.

By John J. Miller & Ramesh Ponnuru
December 13, 2001 1:00 p.m.

he White House may not see Peter Kirsanow formally take his seat on the U.S. Commission for Civil Rights until the courts slap down chairwoman Mary Frances Berry's illegal attempt to keep him from it. Yet there's plenty President Bush can do in the meantime to assume greater control of the commission, as is his right by virtue of the office he holds. He should start by firing staff director Les Jin.

Jin runs the day-to-day operations of the commission. He should be removed from the position if only because he's a holdover from the Clinton administration, having been appointed to the post in September 2000. Bush deserves to have his own person in this important slot, as does any president. When President Clinton came into office in 1993, the first Bush administration's staff director, Willie Gonzalez, was shown the door almost immediately. This was Clinton's right.

The case for replacing Jin goes beyond his being a holdover. He's a shameless hack for Berry. He is afraid to challenge her, even when she behaves lawlessly, as in the current dispute over the commission's makeup. He also refuses to work with the commission's GOP-appointed members. He doesn't let them participate in selecting witnesses to appear at commission hearings, he won't take their names off press releases when they disagree with their content, and he was instrumental in the suppression of the dissent written by commissioners Abigail Thernstrom and Russell Redenbaugh in response to the commission's scandalously bad report on the presidential election in Florida. There are also questions about his handling of the commission's budget.

A new staff director at the civil-rights commission would have to be approved by a majority of the commissioners, and no person named to the post is likely survive such a vote as long as Berry keeps rightful commissioners, such as Kirsanow, from assuming their duties. But Bush can appoint an acting staff director — and deprive Berry of a vital bureaucratic tool in her guerilla war against his very legitimacy as president.

Armey's Army
In what has become a season of farewells for conservative legislators, House majority leader Dick Armey made it official that he will not be running for re-election. The announcement came after similar ones by Jesse Helms and then Phil Gramm. This trio of retirements seems to mark a definitive end to an era of crusading conservatism. We won't summarize Armey's achievements in Congress, since Paul Gigot has already done the job nicely.

One point worth mentioning is that Armey always had one of the best-staffed offices on Capitol Hill. Look at the resumes of the most talented and effective conservatives in Washington, and you'll often find a stint with Armey. Ed Gillespie, a top Republican strategist and lobbyist, was Armey's press secretary. So was Michele Davis, who's now doing the same job for Treasury secretary Paul O'Neill. The White House liaison to Treasury, meanwhile, is April Lehman, another Armey alumna.

David Hobbs is managing the White House's relations with the House. Jim Wilkinson is a top aide to Karen Hughes. Kerry Knott has helped Microsoft defend its freedom to innovate. Dennis Stephens lobbies for conservative causes at Preston Gates. Mike Franc runs federal affairs at the Heritage Foundation. Dina Powell is the associate director of presidential personnel. Kevin Washington is the Labor Department's liaison to Congress. Dean Clancy is going to be staff director for the president's new bioethics commission, and Horace Cooper will be his counterpart at the Voice of America. These people, and many others, constitute Armey's legacy in Washington as much as any bills do.

On The Site
John J. Miller on Mary Frances Berry's best friend in the press.
Ramesh Ponnuru on Time's favorite terrorist.