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May
17, 2002 1:40 p.m.
Seated
Kirsanow
joins the civil-rights commission.
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picture of Victoria Wilson still hangs on the wall of the room where the
U.S. Commission on Civil Rights held its monthly meeting this morning.
Yet she's no longer a member of the commission, and hasn't been since
earlier this month, when a federal appeals court said that her term had
expired late last year and that Peter Kirsanow, the man President Bush
had nominated to succeed her, may
at last take his rightful place on the commission.
There was a smattering
of applause from the back of the room when Kirsanow sat down — for
more than a week, groups supporting Kirsanow had encouraged their allies
to attend the meeting. Many of them did show up, and several wore stickers
that said, "We're here for PETE'S sake."
They came ready for
trouble, in case commission chair Mary Frances Berry tried to deny Kirsanow
his seat. Yet she did nothing to block him from joining the commission,
and began the meeting with a terse statement of five words: "Let
me welcome Mr. Kirsanow."
It must have pained
her to say this. For months Berry and other commission liberals plotted
to keep Kirsanow from joining the panel — they're still at it, in
fact, having announced a long-shot appeal to the Supreme Court. But their
power is now eroded. They control four seats on the eight-member body.
With one seat currently vacant, they can run the commission on a string
of 4-3 votes, which is what they did this morning as they passed their
own resolutions and knocked down others offered by the three commissioners
who have been appointed by Republicans.
Kirsanow's presence
at the meeting clearly did not bring a new spirit of collegiality to the
commission, not that anybody thought it would. At one point, Berry told
GOP member Jennifer Braceras that she could speak on a certain subject
"as long as you want." A couple of minutes later, Berry announced,
"You have spoken long enough." She apparently grew tired of
hearing Braceras criticize the commission's scheduling practices as "disgraceful."
The empty slot on
the commission supposedly will be filled by Senate Minority Leader Trent
Lott, though his ability to fill it relies more on tradition than statute,
and leaves open the possibility that Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle
will gum up the works. But assuming Lott does make the appointment —
word is he'll re-appoint Russell Redenbaugh, a member of the commission
whose term expired last fall — the commission will reach a 4-to-4
voting deadlock. That means no new motions will pass unless at least one
member of either bloc choosing to cross sides. This is unlikely, at least
on matters of real importance, considering the extreme bitterness that
divides them. Last summer, long before the Kirsanow dispute, Berry and
her cohorts suppressed
a dissent written by Abigail Thernstrom and Redenbaugh from the commission's
report on the 2000 presidential vote in Florida.
In short, it may
soon be exceedingly difficult for the commission to get anything done.
Considering its recent track record, that may be a good thing.
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