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External LinksAFL-CIO statement on Kirsanow appointment Kirsanow: "...you can forget about civil rights"; to testify for Alito Cursor.orgMediaTransparency.org sponsor More stories by Bill Berkowitz PERC receives Templeton Freedom Award for promoting 'enviropreneurs' Media Transparency writersAndrew J. Weaver FundometerEvaluate any page on the World Wide Web against our databases of people, recipients, and funders of the conservative movement. |
ORIGINAL RESEARCHBill Berkowitz Cronies, chums and Bush surrogates get government postsPeter Kirsanow, a Black conservative lawyer who represents management in disputes with labor, was handed a recess appointment to the National Labor Relations BoardOn Wednesday, January 4, while the Jack Abramoff corruption scandal continued to unwind, sending Julie L. Myers, a niece of former Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Richard B. Myers and the wife of the chief of staff to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, was appointed to head the Immigration and Customs Enforcement bureau at the Department of Homeland Security. Critics from both parties maintained that Meyers "lacked experience in immigration matters," the Washington Post's Thomas B. Edsall reported. In a 2002 speech Kirsanow said that affirmative action had "metastasized into a racial spoils system consisting of preferences, quotas and set-asides." Tracy A. Henke was appointed executive director of the Office of State and Local Government Coordination and Preparedness. The Washington Post noted that Henke "had been accused in her politically appointed post at the Justice Department of demanding that information about racial disparities in police treatment of blacks in traffic cases be deleted from a news release." Former Maryland Republican gubernatorial candidate (twice defeated) Ellen R. Sauerbrey -- an outspoken opponent of abortion rights and family planning -- whose nomination had been bottled up in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, was named assistant secretary of state for population, refugees and migration. On Thursday, January 5, the New York Times pointed out that Sauerbrey "has zero experience in emergency management and refugee resettlement." Another name on Bush's list was that of Peter N. Kirsanow. The conservative African American lawyer from Cleveland, who since 2001 has been serving on the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, was appointed to fill one of two vacant seats on the five-member National Labor Relations Board. He will maintain the NLRB position for the remainder of a five-year term that expires on August 27, 2008. Kirsanow is a partner with Benesch, Friedlander, Coplan & Aronoff LLP. The firm's website points out that Kirsanow's practice has focused on "representing management in employment-related litigation, as well as in contract negotiations, NLRB proceedings, EEO matters, and arbitration." In a section of his company bio entitled "Labor & Employment," the following accomplishments are listed: Administrative Agency Proceedings Successfully represented an employee leasing firm in the trucking industry in obtaining a court order vacating an arbitration award which reinstated a discharged truck driver who had tested positive for drugs. Collective Bargaining Represented a hospital in bankruptcy which included the rejection of the collective bargaining agreement in the Bankruptcy Court, counseling the client through a bitter strike, and obtaining Court ordered injunctive relief during the strike thereby significantly limiting the number of pickets around the hospital's premises. Employment Law Counseling Represented a foundry before OSHA and the Industrial Commission after one of the company's employees died, allegedly from a workplace injury. Represented a steel processing manufacturer in OSHA, workers' compensation, and personal injury litigation proceedings following a machine failure resulting in the death of the machine operator. But Kirsanow is more than just a lawyer who has represented the interests of management: He has a long history of involvement with conservative organizations and causes, and has often made controversial pronouncements on racial matters and labor issues. In 1996, as a member of Project 21, ostensibly a group of Black conservative leaders, Kirsanow supported anti-union legislation in California that was intended to diminish labor's political power. "Over the years, millions of employees subsidized, to the tune of tens of millions of dollars, union activities wholly unrelated to employees' wages or terms and conditions of employment," Kirsanow said. "The Worker Right to Know Act corrects the repugnant union practice of forcing employees to financially support political positions and arguments to which the employees are personally opposed." In a 2002 speech at the Heritage Foundation, Kirsanow said that affirmative action had "metastasized into a racial spoils system consisting of preferences, quotas and set-asides." According to a story posted at the website of the Communication Workers of America (CWA), the U.S. Civil Rights Commission "has adopted Kirsanow's proposals that only majority-approved reports appear on the website and that a draft report criticizing the civil rights record of the Bush administration be removed from the site." In two recent columns for National Review Online (grants here and here) -- a publication to which he regularly contributes -- Kirsanow has trumpeted the nomination of Judge Sam Alito to the Supreme Court. Just prior to his recess appointment, a report surfaced in the press that Kirsanow, who was on the advisory board of the NCPPR, might be tied to the Abramoff scandal. According to the Washington Post (December 25, 2005), Kirsanow "served on an advisory board and [did] some writing for a group called Project 21 ... [which] sought to get publicity for the views of conservative blacks, including Kirsanow." Project 21 is a program of the National Center for Public Policy Research (grants), a right wing public policy research group that has been around for more than two decades and is closely connected to Tom Delay. According to SourceWatch, a project of the Center for Media and Democracy, the NCPPR was originally founded "to present the conservative perspective on issues of significant public concern. As its first project, it exposed human rights abuses by the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. It then fought against a proposed 'nuclear freeze' and began supporting the Reagan Administration's policies regarding Central America. It now calls itself a 'communications and research foundation dedicated to providing free market solutions to today's public policy problems.'" The Washington Post report pointed out that the AFL-CIO was questioning whether Kirsanow, "a prominent member" of Project 21, may be connected to Abramoff through their mutual involvement with NCPPR. Abramoff, who was a member of NCPPR's Board of Directors, used the group as a front for a "Scotland golfing junket," and other trips taken by Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Tex.), the former House majority leader. "The center is also reported to have received a $1.07 million donation from Abramoff's client, the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians," the Post reported. "This is really a stretch," Kirsanow responded in an interview with the Washington Post. "I don't know Abramoff, I don't know anything about Abramoff except from what I read in snippets in the paper. You might as well say I have a connection to Saddam Hussein." While Kirsanow described Project 21 as "an initiative by the NCPPR to get alternative voices in the black community, those who did not sing from the traditional liberal hymnal," into the public policy debate, SourceWatch depicts it as "a conservative African American organization that opposes affirmative action and the minimum wage and has issued news releases in support of genetically modified foods." In addition, SourceWatch pointed out, "Project 21 has been funded by R.J. Reynolds, and it has lobbied in support of tobacco industry interests, opposing FDA regulation of the industry, excise taxes and other government policies to reduce tobacco use." On Thursday, January 5, 2006 AFL-CIO President John Sweeney, issued a statement condemning the Kirsanow appointment.: "In his writings and during his prior public service, Mr. Kirsanow has taken stands against the minimum wage, affirmative action, prevailing wages, voting rights legislation and other basic protections for workers and citizens, and he has expressed a marked hostility to unions. Appointment of a person with such views to a key worker rights adjudication and enforcement position raises legitimate questions among workers about what to expect now from the NLRB." sign in, or register to email stories or comment on them.
Reader CommentsYou need to check out my father's case i.e. Cecil King v. Diamond Alkali/Shamrock or Ricerca, LLC. Lake County, Ohio. Not certain of case number, but there's some funky stuff going on there, and his NAACP referral attorney took his money with no contract, did no real work, then ignored any and all emails I gave him with substantive case law to prosecute this case. --- Christopher King | 1-12-2006 | 3:22 pm | homepage | email
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MORE ORIGINAL RESEARCHBill Berkowitz PERC receives Templeton Freedom Award for promoting 'enviropreneurs'Right Wing foundation-funded anti-environmental think tank grabbing a wider audience for 'free market environmentalism' On the 15th anniversary of Terry Anderson and Donald Leal's book "Free Market Environmentalism" -- the seminal book on the subject -- Anderson, the Executive Director of the Bozeman, Montana-based Property and Environment Research Center (PERC - formerly known as the Political Economy Research Center) spoke in late-January at an event sponsored by Squaw Valley Institute at the Resort at Squaw Creek in California. While it may have been just another opportunity to speak on "free market environmentalism" and not the kickoff of a "victory tour," nevertheless it comes at a time when PERC's ideas are taking root.
Bill Berkowitz Neil Bush of Saudi ArabiaDuring recent visit, President’s brother describes the country as a 'kind of tribal democracy' In late February, only a few days after Saudi Arabia beheaded four Sri Lankan robbers and then left their headless bodies on public display in the capital of Riyadh, Neil Bush, for the fourth time in the past six years, showed up for the country's Jeddah Economic Forum. The Guardian reported that Human Rights Watch "said the four men had no lawyers during their trial and sentencing, and were denied other basic legal rights." In an interview with Arab News, the Saudi English language paper, Bush described the country as "a kind of tribal democracy."
Bill Berkowitz Newt Gingrich's back door to the White HouseAmerican Enterprise Institute "Scholar" and former House Speaker blames media for poll showing 64 percent of the American people wouldn't vote for him under any circumstances Whatever it is that former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has come to represent in American politics, the guy is nothing less than fascinating. One day he's espousing populist rhetoric about the need to cut the costs of college tuition and the next day he's talking World War III. One day he's claiming that the "war on terror" may force the abridgement of fundamental first amendment rights and the next he's advancing a twenty-first century version of his Contract with America. At the same time he's publicly proclaiming how "stupid" it is that the race for the presidency has already started you know that he's trying to figure out how to out finesse Rudy, McCain and Romney for the nomination. And last week, when Fox News' Chris Wallace cited a poll showing that 64 percent of the public would never vote for him, he was quick to blame those results on how unfairly he was treated by the mainstream media back in the day.
Bill Berkowitz American Enterprise Institute takes lead in agitating against IranDespite wrongheaded predictions about the war on Iraq, neocons are on the frontlines advocating military conflict with Iran After doing such a bang up job with their advice and predictions about the outcome of the war on Iraq, would it surprise you to learn that America's neoconservatives are still in business? While at this time we are not yet seeing the same intense neocon invasion of our living rooms -- via cable television's news networks -- that we saw during the run-up to the invasion of Iraq, nevertheless, a host of policy analysts at conservative think tanks -- most notably the American Enterprise Institute -- are being heeded on Iran by those who count - folks inside the Bush Administration.
Bill Berkowitz After six years, opposition gaining on George W. Bush's Faith Based InitiativeUnmentioned in the president's State of the Union speech, the program nevertheless continues to recruit religious participants and hand out taxpayer money to religious groups With several domestic policy proposals unceremoniously folded into President Bush's recent State of the Union address, two pretty significant items failed to make the cut. Despite the president's egregiously tardy response to the event itself, it was nevertheless surprising that he didn't even mention Hurricane Katrina: He didn't offer up a progress report, words of hope to the victims, or come up with a proposal for moving the sluggish rebuilding effort forward. There were no "armies of compassion" ready to be unleashed, although it should be said that many in the religious community responded to the disaster much quicker than the Bush Administration. In the State of the Union address, however, there was no "compassionate conservatism" for the victims of Hurricane Katrina.
Bill Berkowitz Frank Luntz calls Republican leadership in Washington 'One giant whining windbag'On the outs with the GOP, legendary degrader of discourse is moving to California He doesn't make great art; nothing he does elevates the human spirit; he doesn't illuminate, he bamboozles. He has become expert in subterfuge, hidden meanings, word play and manipulation. Frank Luntz has been so good at what he does that those paying close attention gave it its own name: "Luntzspeak."
Bill Berkowitz Spooked by MoveOn.org, conservative movement seeks to emulate liberal powerhouseFueled with Silicon Valley money, TheVanguard.org will have Richard Poe, former editor of David Horowitz's FrontPage magazine as its editorial and creative director As Paul Weyrich, a founding father of the modern conservative movement and still a prominent actor in it, likes to say, he learned a great deal about movement building by closely observing what liberals were up to in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Bill Berkowitz Ward Connerly's anti-affirmative action jihadFounder and Chair of the American Civil Rights Institute scouting five to nine states for new anti-affirmative action initiatives Fresh from his most recent victory -- in Michigan this past November -- Ward Connerly, the Black California-based maven of anti-affirmative action initiatives, appears to be preparing to take his jihad on the road. According to a mid-December report in the San Francisco Chronicle, Connerly said that he was "exploring moves into nine other states."
Bill Berkowitz Tom Tancredo's missionThe Republican congressman from Colorado will try to woo GOP voters with anti-immigration rhetoric and a boatload of Christian right politics These days, probably the most recognizable name in anti-immigration politics is Colorado Republican Congressman Tom Tancredo. Over the past year, Tancredo has gone from a little known congressman to a highly visible anti-immigration spokesperson. "Tancredo has thoroughly enmeshed himself in the anti-immigration movement and with the help of CNN talk show host Lou Dobbs, he has been given a national megaphone," Devin Burghart, the program director of the Building Democracy Initiative at the Center for New Community, a Chicago-based civil rights group, told Media Transparency.
Bill Berkowitz Institute on Religion and Democracy slams 'Leftist' National Council of ChurchesNew report from conservative foundation-funded IRD charges the NCC with being a political surrogate for MoveOn.org, People for the American Way and other liberal organizations If you prefer your religious battles sprinkled with demagoguery, sanctimoniousness, and simplistic attacks, the Institute on Religion and Democracy's (IRD) latest broadside against the National Council of Churches (NCC) certainly fits the bill.
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