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Uh oh, he's going to be racist again if he's not careful.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0209/19303.html
Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.), the longest-serving Democratic senator, is criticizing President Obama’s appointment of White House “czars” to oversee federal policy, saying these executive positions amount to a power grab by the executive branch.
In a letter to Obama on Wednesday, Byrd complained about Obama’s decision to create White House offices on health reform, urban affairs policy, and energy and climate change. Byrd said such positions “can threaten the Cons utional system of checks and balances. At the worst, White House staff have taken direction and control of programmatic areas that are the statutory responsibility of Senate-confirmed officials.”
While it's rare for Byrd to criticize a president in his own party, Byrd is a stern cons utional scholar who has always stood up for the legislative branch in its role in checking the power of the White House. Byrd no longer holds the powerful Appropriations chairmanship, so his criticism does not carry as much weight these days. Byrd repeatedly clashed with the Bush administration over executive power, and it appears that he's not limiting his criticism to Republican administrations.
Byrd also wants Obama to limit claims of executive privilege while also ensuring that the White House czars don’t have authority over Cabinet officers confirmed by the Senate.
“As presidential assistants and advisers, these White House staffers are not accountable for their actions to the Congress, to cabinet officials, and to virtually anyone but the president,” Byrd wrote. “They rarely testify before congressional committees, and often shield the information and decision-making process behind the assertion of executive privilege. In too many instances, White House staff have been allowed to inhibit openness and transparency, and reduce accountability.”
The West Virginia Democrat on Wednesday asked Obama to “consider the following: that assertions of executive privilege will be made only by the president, or with the president’s specific approval; that senior White House personnel will be limited from exercising authority over any person, any program, and any funding within the statutory responsibility of a Senate-confirmed department or agency head; that the president will be responsible for resolving any disagreement between a Senate-confirmed agency or department head and White House staff; and that the lines of authority and responsibility in the administration will be transparent and open to the American public.”
Obama faces a decision as early as next week on whether to support a claim of executive privilege made by former President Bush in refusing to allow Karl Rove, the former deputy White House chief of staff, to be deposed by the House Judiciary Committee on the White House’s role in the 2006 firing of nine U.S. attorneys.
Bush claimed “absolute immunity” for top advisers in resisting such subpoenas, but Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.), chairman of the Judiciary Committee, filed a lawsuit over the issue. The case is on appeal, and the Obama administration is scheduled to file a motion next week laying out its stance on the issue.
counterstrikers.
Uh oh, he's going to be racist again if he's not careful.
According to Sen. Byrd he wasn't the first time. Says he was a social climber, so he went on and joined the Klan. It was a different world I guess.
The 770-page book is the latest in a long series of attempts by the 87-year-old Democratic patriarch to try to explain an event early in his life that threatens to define him nearly as much as his achievements in the Senate. In it, Byrd says he viewed the Klan as a useful platform from which to launch his political career. He described it essentially as a fraternal group of elites -- doctors, lawyers, clergy, judges and other "upstanding people" who at no time engaged in or preached violence against blacks, Jews or Catholics, who historically were targets of the Klan.
His latest account is consistent with others he has offered over the years that tend to minimize his direct involvement with the Klan and explain it as a youthful indiscretion. "My only explanation for the entire episode is that I was sorely afflicted with tunnel vision -- a jejune and immature outlook -- seeing only what I wanted to see because I thought the Klan could provide an outlet for my talents and ambitions," Byrd wrote.
Last edited by Winehole23; 02-27-2009 at 12:54 AM.
Historical oddity.
only if he becomes a republican.
Ahem. We already got the memo. Racial superiority was apparently the fashionable thing in elite West Virginia society at the time. In his "jejune" state of inexperience and folly Robert Byrd deemed it advantageous to cling to the Klan. No biggie, right?
Last edited by Winehole23; 02-28-2009 at 09:58 AM.
So what? He was a member of the klan. How is that different than being a member of either Sharpton or Jackson's groups...
Racism is ugly regardless of white robe and hood.
Yeah. No biggie, like I said.
Being in Sharpton and Jackson's crew is like kicking it with the KKK? Orly?
Regardless of white robe and hood. Yes it is.
Restored. Sec24Row7 was cool with the joke:
I hope you at least took the hood off when you said that.
Last edited by Winehole23; 03-02-2009 at 10:46 AM.
WH23 retracts the apology. It turned out to be unnecessary.
Last edited by Winehole23; 03-02-2009 at 10:47 AM.
bmp
Damn, say anything against The Messiah and you are racist.
The Messiah is a manchild who wants to make the United States into a
Socialist (make that communist) country. Nothing racist about that.
He loves his czar's.
He loves his czar's what?
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