Third Way Dispatch

As Noam Scheiber reports this week in The New Republic, George Bush has nominated yet another appointee to high office without credentials. And while this one lacks experience as an Arabian Horse Show director, he qualifies as a “Brownie” level of disconnect between job requirements and experience. Apparently, this President ranks cronyism not only above disaster response, but also above monetary policy, global economics, and interest rates. With the appointment of Kevin Warsh to the Federal Reserve Board, President Bush has added to a long and growing list of under-qualified officials who will have a long and lasting impact on the nation and, in this case, the world.

Thank God for the NYPD and its Commissioner, Ray Kelly. At least someone is doing their job.

Last week, New York’s finest concluded an 11-month undercover operation by smashing the largest illegal gun running ring in the history of Big Apple law enforcement. 116 guns were confiscated – from AK-47s to handguns –and gun trafficking arrests were made in some of America’s top gun running states of Virginia, Georgia and Ohio.

But where was the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms? Cracking down on the illegal trade in guns is supposed to be their job. After all, illegal guns move across state lines – this is the very definition of a job for the feds.

Let’s be clear. The Vice President did nothing wrong.

“He was not careless or incautious or violate any of the [rules]. He didn’t do anything he wasn’t supposed to do,” said Mary Matalin, the Vice President’s spokesperson who had the benefit of not being on the scene when Dick Cheney blasted birdshot from a 28-gauge shotgun into the chest and face of hunting partner Harry Whittington. No, far from it. In fact, Mr. Whittington was lucky that Cheney was around. ”Fortunately, the vice president has got a lot of medical people around him so they were right there,” afforded Katherine Armstrong, the owner of the property where nothing improper happened Saturday. And let’s face it – if anything, Whittington is to blame for getting between a quail and Cheney’s firearm. You see, Whittington “had not made his presence known” when he briefly separated from the hunting party. Whittington should apologize to Cheney for ruining the afternoon and spoiling a good hunt. But why should anyone apologize when nothing really happened.

A few weeks ago, some friends from Population Action International asked to meet with me about an international family planning bill that reduces abortion in the developing world through an effective and humane approach. Sound “Third Way”? It is.

Here’s a comforting thought. As gang members, drug dealers, terrorists, white supremacists and your basic garden variety thug are buying and selling illegal guns, the Director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms is obsessing over window treatments, wood paneling options, and soap dishes as he renovates his new office suite.

I have nothing against Feng Shui, but there is a time and place for choosing tile and a time and place for … well, doing your job.

In the case of ATF Director Carl Truscott, doing your job means enforcing the nation’s gun laws. But an Inspector General’s report that was uncovered today in the Washington Post, reveals that enforcing the nation’s gun laws is running a distant second to the ATF’s headquarters opulent construction project.

This dovetails nicely with the points we made in our Message Memo Taking Back the Second Amendment. Truscott’s obsession with decor provides progressives with yet another opportunity to point out this Administration’s failure to do their jobs when it comes to gun crime: enforcing the laws on the books.

The Alito confirmation notwithstanding, we hear a lot of talk out of conservatives about how those in the Senate who have opposed some of the President’s most controversial judicial nominations are “obstructionists.” The conservatives may huff and puff, but as Mark Twain noted, facts are stubborn things.

Since President Bush has taken office, he has had 228 judicial nominees confirmed: two Supreme Court Justices, 42 Circuit Court judges and 184 District Court judges.

The Constitution gives the Senate the power to “Advise and Consent” on judicial nominees. For a group so committed to “original intent,” the President’s allies in the Senate seem to think that our Founding Fathers meant “Advise and Consent” to mean “rubber stamp”. Of the 12,000 Senate Republican votes on Bush judicial nominees, GOP senators have cast a total of six No votes. Six! That’s a record that would make a Soviet Premier blush.