A story of Senate pork--and payback.
Monday, December 5, 2005 12:01 a.m. EST
Here's one way Congress could be useful in fighting the terrorists in Iraq: Confirm Gordon England as Deputy Secretary of Defense.
Conducting a war requires a fully staffed Pentagon, something the U.S. Senate is proving itself unwilling to provide. President Bush was forced to use his recess-appointment power last summer to name Eric Edelman as Undersecretary for Policy, the department's No. 3 position, when Democrat Carl Levin refused to lift his hold on the nomination over a spat pertaining to Mr. Edelman's predecessor, Douglas Feith. Ditto for Peter Flory, Assistant Secretary for International Security Policy.
Now it looks like the President will have to follow suit with Mr. England, who has been in limbo since he was nominated in March. It's a good thing Donald Rumsfeld seems to like his job. If the 73-year-old Defense Secretary were to retire, who knows whether a successor could be confirmed.
Mr. England's stalled confirmation is all the more outrageous since he is being held up by a member of the President's own party. Olympia Snowe is miffed that, as Navy Secretary, Mr. England did not fight some cuts in the ship-building budget dear to the heart of the Senator from Maine. Her office tells us he did not show sufficient "leadership." "I don't know what it would take" to get the Senator to lift her hold, a Snowe spokesman says. Translation: This is payback, so forget about it.
Another Republican, Mississippi's Trent Lott, has had similar problems with Mr. England's lack of devotion to naval pork. He finally lifted his own hold last month, after meeting with Mr. England, who has been Acting Deputy Secretary of Defense since May, when Paul Wolfowitz left to head the World Bank. Under the rules governing political appointments, he is permitted to serve as "acting" since he already has a government job--that of Navy Secretary.
But with the Senate's recent confirmation of a new Navy Secretary, things are getting complicated. When Donald Winter eventually takes the oath of office, Mr. England will lose both his jobs. To keep that from happening, Defense is looking for a lower-level position--one that doesn't require Senate confirmation--to which Mr. England can be appointed for the purpose of allowing him to continue as Acting Deputy. We'd then have the absurd situation in which the official rank of the No. 2 man in the Pentagon is several notches down the totem pole from those who work for him.
The purpose of such a charade would be to keep Mr. England on until the next session of Congress begins next year, when he would receive a recess appointment. A recess appointment expires at the end of the following Congressional session, so if he were recess-appointed now he could serve only until the end of 2006. If Mr. Bush waits until next year to appoint him, Mr. England could stay until the end of 2007--perhaps even long enough to make a difference.
A far better outcome would be for the Senate to fulfill its constitutional responsibilities and give Mr. England an up-or-down vote. The unwritten tradition of the "hold," whereby an individual Senator can delay indefinitely a Presidential nomination, is an abuse of the Senate's advise-and-consent power and is seriously interfering with the operation of the Pentagon. It means that a single Senator can essentially defeat a Presidential nominee.
If national security and the Constitution are not enough to move Senators, they might consider their own self-interest. By refusing to vote on a President's nominees, they are undermining the authority of the Senate itself and encouraging this and future Presidents to rely more on recess appointments, bypassing that body altogether.
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