Carl Levin says, "Summer is for holding"
About a year ago, I noted that Senator Carl Levin (D-MI) had placed a "hold" on the nomination of Peter Flory to a position in the Defense Department. For those of you unfamiliar with the term (or too lazy to click the link), a hold is an informal power of Senators to delay indefinitely a vote on, well, pretty much any subject. It also, when it's used to derail confirmation procedures, leaves key positions unfilled and people's careers in limbo.
Levin had no bone to pick with Flory--instead, he used the hold as leverage against Flory's then-boss in an attempt to get some documents. President Bush ultimately gave Flory a recess appointment, but it seems that Levin has developed a taste for these underhanded holds.
The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) reports that Levin has holds out on two more security-related appointments, those of Ken Wainstein (for the position of Assistant Attorney General for National Security) and Alice Fisher (Fisher whose recess appointment as Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division has run its course). Levin has nothing personal against these two appointees, but it seems that both of their names have been mentioned in connection with the Pentagon's Guantanamo policies, and Levin knows an opportunity when he sees it.
Of course, neither Wainstein nor Fisher is accused of supporting the interrogation tactics which so concern Sen. Levin. The problems are 1) that Wainstein's name appears in some emails which show that the FBI disapproved of the Pentagon's approach at Gitmo, and 2) that Fisher may have been at a meeting where the situation at Gitmo was discussed. So how much sense does it make for Levin to skewer the appointments of two people who, the information seems to suggest, agree with his position? Plenty, once you realize that he's only using them as pawns to get after more information--though the information he's already been given as a prize for his actions has failed to satisfy him.
And two key national security positions sit vacant.
Technorati Tags:
Carl Levin, Senate, Hold, Flory, Wainstein, Fisher, FBI, Guantanamo, Gitmo, National Security
Levin had no bone to pick with Flory--instead, he used the hold as leverage against Flory's then-boss in an attempt to get some documents. President Bush ultimately gave Flory a recess appointment, but it seems that Levin has developed a taste for these underhanded holds.
The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) reports that Levin has holds out on two more security-related appointments, those of Ken Wainstein (for the position of Assistant Attorney General for National Security) and Alice Fisher (Fisher whose recess appointment as Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division has run its course). Levin has nothing personal against these two appointees, but it seems that both of their names have been mentioned in connection with the Pentagon's Guantanamo policies, and Levin knows an opportunity when he sees it.
Of course, neither Wainstein nor Fisher is accused of supporting the interrogation tactics which so concern Sen. Levin. The problems are 1) that Wainstein's name appears in some emails which show that the FBI disapproved of the Pentagon's approach at Gitmo, and 2) that Fisher may have been at a meeting where the situation at Gitmo was discussed. So how much sense does it make for Levin to skewer the appointments of two people who, the information seems to suggest, agree with his position? Plenty, once you realize that he's only using them as pawns to get after more information--though the information he's already been given as a prize for his actions has failed to satisfy him.
And two key national security positions sit vacant.
Technorati Tags:
Carl Levin, Senate, Hold, Flory, Wainstein, Fisher, FBI, Guantanamo, Gitmo, National Security
posted by Jeff at 4:44 PM
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