Thursday, October 16, 2003
Federal Personnel Office
It seems there are a number of nominations coming from the White House for second- and third-tier Cabinet positions, which is, of course, where a goodly amount of the actual policy that impacts us on a daily basis is written.0 comments
President George W. Bush has nominated one Michael David Gallagher to be Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information, National Telecommunications and Information Administration, which oversees management of government spectrum resources. This is the Agency which oversees ICANN and, therefore, the entire Internet. The position was formerly held by Nancy Victory. Gallagher has been holding the job on an interim basis. He also currently serves as Deputy Chief of Staff for the U.S. Department of Commerce.
I noticed a couple of interesting items in Gallagher's bio, considering he's up for a telecommunications/Internet oversight job:
Career: Administrative Assistant to Congressman Rick White (R-Washington), 1995-1997; Managing Director for Government Relations, AirTouch Communications, Inc., Bellevue, WA, 1998-2000; Vice President for State Public Policy, Verizon Wireless, Bellevue, WA; Deputy Assistant Secretary for Communications and Information, National Telecommunications and Information Administration, Department of Commerce, Washington, DC, 2001-present.
He certainly has had an interesting, fast-track career path.
He goes from (I assume) school to a Congressman's office for three years. Then parlays that nifty item on his resume into senior-level lobbying jobs for succesive telecommunications firms who have business before state and federal governments. Then, after maybe a year total working for these two companies, he slides smoothly into a Deputy Assistant Secretary's position in the Agency within the Cabinet Department which is charged with regulating the very companies he's just been working for. Then within two years, he gets a shot at the Agency's top job.
Either he can't hold a job in the private sector or he's making a lot of friends very quickly along the way.
In either event, it's worth keeping an eye on this lad's progress. And on his confimation process. It's often difficult to advance this quickly merely on the result of your scores on the written exam.
Could it be?
Is it possible?
Might the Bush administration actually do something that may not do damage to the under-$250,000/yr. crowd?
Be still my heart!
If right-to-work advocate Mark Mix can be so hopping mad at President Bush, then perhaps a political nomination has promise. Mix is the head of the ultra-conservative National Right To Work Committee, which claims 2.2 million members and is located in (where else?) Virginia.
[Have you noticed how over time the great state of Virginia has gradually replaced Ohio as the eastern seat of right-wing crackpot-ism—be it religious or temporal? In California, however, Orange County maintains its grasp on the western office.]
Over at the Department of Labor, it seems that one Howard Radzely [who as a former law clerk for Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia certainly has his Republican papers in order], has been acting-Solicitor of Labor since January of this year. He has finally been nominated by Bush for the full job. According to Mix's overwrought press release, Radzely's nomination is currently pending in the U.S. Senate's Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee chaired by Senator Judd Gregg (R-NH).
In his capacity as Acting Solicitor, Radzely, it seems, has inspired the ire of the anti-union crowd by tempering new Labor Dept. union financial disclosure regulations under the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act, which is dear to the hearts of far right apologists for big corporations.
A lot seems to not be enough when you seek it all.
Has the greed for power so settled in with those on the right—and replaced mere lust for power—that anything short of total victory and vindication is seen as abject failure in the pursuit of their aims?
Despite whatever levity any of us who disagree with them might bring to the silliness of it all, this is the level where things get truly scary for the future of the Republic. This is where the most grievous damage is done. These people want the whole enchilada and will not tolererate dissent, even from within their own ranks.
Keep in mind, it was one grocery chain owner/idealogue from Syracuse in the late '40s whose ideological boycott of radio progams fanned the flames under the blacklist.
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posted by Gotham 1:26 PM
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