Sticking a finger in the eye of the Senate, Bush makes another recess appointment

yes, i know most blogs are squarely focused on the fast-approaching elections... that's fine, and i'm glad they are... however, the bush administration continues to play fast and loose, manipulating every facet of government to continue pursuing their money-grabbing and power-accumulating agenda...

what follows, in contravention of the "fair use" standard, is a full nyt editorial from today's edition that once again clearly illustrates how bushco doesn't miss a single beat his relentless pursuit of pushing the united states down the road to ruin... read it... read it all... it's a quick case study on just what bush and his gang of criminals is all about...

Despite being twice rebuffed by the Senate, President Bush has named Richard Stickler, a stolid mining industry careerist, to run the mine safety agency whose serial ineptitude has been laid bare this year by the deaths of 42 mineworkers. Waiting until the Senate left town for the elections, Mr. Bush resorted to a recess appointment to place Mr. Stickler at the heart of enforcing new safety reforms that, in earlier hearings, the appointee himself had claimed were not at all that necessary.

To the contrary, these reforms became a crying need brought home to the nation from the depths of the Sago mine disaster in West Virginia, where 12 workers died in January. Sago presented a clinic in failed government oversight. The new law would double a miner’s emergency oxygen to two hours; mandate electronic devices to track trapped miners; and repair the damage originally done by the administration in cutting more than 200 mine safety inspectors in the name of budget economy.

Mr. Stickler points to his six years as Pennsylvania mine safety chief to rebut criticism that he is the latest example in the administration’s dangerous history of packing safety agencies with pro- industry regulators. But the bulk of his career was in corporate management of mines. Miners and lawmakers have cited the federal agency’s own data in warning that injury rates at his mines were higher than the national average. The administration’s pro-industry tack is a running scandal exemplified by Steven Griles, a mining lobbyist who was appointed deputy secretary of the interior. Mr. Griles devoted four years to rolling back mine regulations and then returned to lobbying for an industry long known for its patronage clout with politicians.

Senate opposition to Mr. Stickler reached the point that the nomination was twice withheld. The Republican majority leader, Bill Frist, said that if the president resorted to a recess appointment — a device guaranteeing Mr. Stickler at least a year in office — the Senate would schedule a showdown vote in response. Senator Frist must be held to his promise. Lawmakers should demand a bulldog enforcement director rather than another industry lapdog.

i am always grimly amused to read exhortations directed toward any member of the republican ruling cabal... after nearly six years, how anyone can, in their wildest dreams, believe that encouraging one of them to do the right thing will have any impact whatsoever, is beyond me...

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