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 SA
Today columnist DeWayne Wickham yesterday rose to the defense
of Mary Frances Berry and her dispute with the White House over
the makeup of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. But he failed
to acknowledge his personal tie to the chairwoman. In dispute is
whether liberal commissioner Victoria Wilson's term expired last
month (the White House says yes, Berry says no) and whether President
Bush's choice to replace Wilson, Peter
Kirsanow, deserves the slot.
"The Bush
administration is trying to run roughshod over this country's only
independent federal civil-rights agency," wrote
Wickham. "[President Bush] follows in his father's footsteps
by naming a black conservative to a position on a panel that has
been a traditional guardian of the interests of African-Americans
and other minorities. By so doing, Bush hopes to bamboozle black
folks in much the same way his dad did when he named Clarence Thomas
to the Supreme Court."
Wickham is
entitled to his opinion, however obnoxious. But in defending Berry
and her views, he ought to admit that he once worked for her. As
his online
biography notes, "From 1978 to 1980, Wickham took a sabbatical
from his journalism career and worked as a special assistant to
Dr. Mary Frances Berry, who ran federal education programs in the
Carter administration before the creation of the Department of Education."
This biography
is available to USA Today's online readers, if they do a
little searching. But there's no way for print readers to know Wickham
is tight with Berry. He has an obligation to inform them of this,
and he let them down.
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