« previous | MUCK HOME | next »
Kennedy Asks Mukasey for Review of Voting Rights Chief
Last week Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) called for the Justice Department's voting rights chief John Tanner to be fired. And in written questions to attorney general nominee Michael Mukasey this week, Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-MA) asked Mukasey to review Tanner's record and consider whether he ought to be canned.
In the question, Kennedy noted Tanner's reasoning that voter ID laws actually discriminate against whites because "'minorities don't become elderly the way white people do.'" The "remarks display a shameful lack of understanding and sensitivity that is unacceptable in the person charged with enforcing the nation’s laws against voting discrimination," he wrote.
Tanner will appear before a House judiciary subcommittee on Tuesday, where he's sure to be questioned about those remarks, others where he said that African-Americans tend to carry picture ID because of racial profiling, and his role in whitewashing a Justice Department review of Columbus, Ohio voting problems in the 2004 election and forcing through approval of a controversial voter ID law in Georgia -- among other things. It's not going to be a fun hearing for Tanner. The chairman of that subcommittee, Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), called on Tanner to resign yesterday.
"The Voting Section of the Civil Rights Division has failed miserably in its responsibility to enforce the Voting Rights Act during this Administration," Sen. Kennedy said in a statement. "The latest shameful revelations from the Section drive home the urgent need for the next Attorney General to install strong leadership to allow the Voting Section to return to its historic role in ensuring access to the ballot."
Kennedy's question to Mukasey is below.
During your hearing, Senator Cardin asked you about the Civil Rights Division’s approval of a 2005 Georgia photo ID law over strong objections by career professionals that the law would have a discriminatory impact on minority voters. That 2005 law was enjoined by a federal court as having the effect of a Jim-Crow era poll tax, and the injunction was upheld by the Eleventh Circuit. The Georgia legislature abandoned the 2005 law, and passed a new version the following year. The Washington Post reported that Mr. Tanner dismissed concerns over the racially discriminatory impact of photo ID laws in recent public remarks to the National Latino Congreso, suggesting that such laws affect the elderly, but not minorities because "minorities don't become elderly the way white people do. They die first." These remarks display a shameful lack of understanding and sensitivity that is unacceptable in the person charged with enforcing the nation’s laws against voting discrimination. These comments only underscore the Voting Section’s troubling record under Mr. Tanner. If you are confirmed, will you review Mr. Tanner’s record and consider whether he should be replaced as head of the Voting Section?
Josh
Zachary
My only criticism of this piece is that I really don't think that the term "reasoning" can accurately be use to relate to anything produced by the one and only John Tanner.
October 26, 2007 12:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
Tanner must also be called to account for his hiring and retention of Yvette Rivera. Rivera is the acting deputy section chief of the Section 5 Unit in the Voting Section. She is Susana Lorenzo-Giguere's counterpart.
There are currently nine individuals performing the duties of Section 5 analysts, down from 23. Since Rivera took over from 28-year veteran Bob Berman, whom Tanner forcibly transferred to a dead-end training job, over 100 years of Section 5 analyst experience has been forced out. Almost all of these analysts were black. One, on her departure, as has been reported by NPR, referred to the Section as a plantation. Of the nine remaining individuals, two are black.
Yesterday was the Civil Rights Division awards ceremony. Rivera decides which analysts get awards. Seven of the nine got awards of one form or another.
Guess who didn't get an award? The two black analysts. They also happen to be the two most experienced analysts.
The Voting Section, and more specifically Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act stopped Jim Crow. Under Tanner and Rivera, the Voting Section has BECOME Jim Crow.
October 26, 2007 12:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
Following the same "resoning", one could argue that minority voters will soon become extinct, victims of natural selection since, according to Tanner, they tend to die first...
Would this be a case in which we can blame Darwinian selection for favoring the Republican agenda by extending the lifespan of whites?
All creationists out there: Anybody care to explain?
October 26, 2007 12:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
Almost forgot. For her outstanding racism in forcing out over 100 years of experienced black analysts, in not giving her own black analysts awards, and for perverting the enforcement of Section 5, Yveete Rivera herself received an award.
Not just any award. A Special Commendation award that includes a CASH BONUS.
Her immediate supervisor, John Tanner, recommended her for that award.
The deputy chief who supervised U.S. v. Ike Brown, the Noxubee County, MS case where DOJ sued black elected officials to "protect" the voting rights of whites in Mississippi, got a named award for distinguished service.
Welcome to the Bush Civil Rights Division: be a racist, get extra money.
October 26, 2007 1:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
And don't forget the two Equal Opportunity Employment complaints already on the books against Ms. Rivera for her racial discrimination against two other black employees in the Section. Oh, and the illegal performance appraisals that Ms. Rivera previously wrote for Section 5 employees although she wasn't in service long enough to be authorized to do so-- appraisals that criticized minority and politically-targeted employees.
October 26, 2007 1:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
As bad as Tanner is, what does it say about the section when there are actually 3-4 bigger culprits in the high brass who's heads should roll first. I can't wait to see what the percentage of staff rollover will be between November and January of next year.
October 26, 2007 2:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
Anon - this is absolutely correct. The untold story about nonsense in the section is how the high brass above turned a blind eye and gave no adult supervision. Part of the problem was Wan Kim's managment style. The other part is that Tanner is really good at tricking people. Word is that once he gets canned, he is going to go sell used cars in PG County.
October 26, 2007 2:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
It never hit TPM when Paul was outing all of the line attorneys who are members of the Republican National Lawyers Association, but Cameron Quinn is also a member.
Tanner's job was always to keep the lid on after Hans and Schlozzie did their dirty work.
October 26, 2007 3:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
*GASP* *CHOKE* *COUGH* *WHEEZ*
"What was that?!?"
"Oh, nothing. Just the sound of Mr. Tanner's career in the federal government dying, right before his very own eyes. MUHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!"
Go get'em, Sen. Kennedy!
Fight the power and always question those in authority......
October 26, 2007 8:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
Committee Members, please keep in mind that Tanner is a charmer, or thinks he is. Dig deep, dont let him off the hook. Ask the follow up questions. Dig on the Berman reassignment, dig on the lack of awards for black analysts (and realize that one of them is the 3rd most productive, yet got nothing), dig on the lack of Section 5 staff, dig on Yvette Rivera's lack of being able to be hired into the Deputy Chief position (she has been ACTING for over a year and even tho she applied in 2006, she has not been given the position..why? Perhaps she is not qualified? Perhaps Gaye Tenoso, Judith Reed, and Chris Herren, all applicants, have MUCH more experience and Management knows this...), dig dig dig! dont make the reauthorization be for nothing!
October 26, 2007 10:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
Icejustice;
"Guess who didn't get an award? The two black analysts. They also happen to be the two most experienced analysts."
Sometimes, when it descends to such a basic level of prejudice, we really do get to see things in "black and white" and in terms of the Bush legacy, it doesn't look pretty, and will look even worse from history's perspective.
Hubris blinds its purveyors from their own tranparencies. They never realize how obvious their manipulations are to their vicitms. Especially to bright young children being tax-cut and war-spent right out of their futures.
And when it is so blatant that we can actually see it from a contemporary point of view, is there any doubt we will see more of this type of thinly-veiled discrimination in retrospect?
How much more of it will we recognize, in numbers and tallies like this one, when we eventually look back in wonder at our own undoing, when the MSM's own awol watchdogs finally begin to publish righteous words of contempt against those who led (lead) us astray.
But as I recall there was a very large "minority" voicing those concerns long ago, and they were summarily ignored by the MSM.
And thus was born "the blogs" which, like the "footprints in the sand" story, carried our very concept of liberty like a lost and forsaken child, across an age of vast media conspiracy and deception.
Viva la Blogs!
October 27, 2007 9:34 AM | Reply | Permalink
Workplace injustices have been going on in the Voting Section for far too long. Legions of faithful, dedicated, and skilled personnel have been made to flee because they were collectively asked to compromise their personal ethical and moral beliefs to be more in-line with a program that only rewards stooges, lackeys, cronies, flunkies, and yes-men. The current powers have systematically gained control of the agency through a tangled, convoluted web of deceit, subterfuge, and misdirection.
The Voting Section has transformed from a branch of Justice that watched over the best interests of the common, everyday person's right to vote to a dark refuge where a few privileged individuals selfishly push their own political agendas on an unsuspecting populace. It's really shameful when top officials allow political agendas and special interests to become the rule of law, rather than ensure everyone across this great nation is getting their voice heard in the voting booth.
The Voting Section as lost its way and is stumbling carelessly in the darkness right now. It's time to bring it back into the light. New leadership is needed if the greatest piece of government legislation passed in the latter half of the 20th Century will ever live up to the true challenges that still lie ahead. ALL PEOPLE, white, black, Latino, Asian, Native American, rich, poor, young, old, men, and women must be treated as EQUAL at the polling place, if nowhere else.
In the words of CNN's Jack Cafferty, IT'S TIME TO THROW THE BUMS OUT AND START OVER!!
Fight the power and always question those in authority......
Special shout-out to Genarlow Wilson. Congratdulations on finally beating the devils in the GA judicial system who wrongfully imprisoned you for 2 years. Hurry up and get started on getting your life back.
October 27, 2007 9:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
Invisable - sounds like you have the flair to write a newsletter. You ought to distribute it straight to the entire voting section so tanner's ability to trick people is stopped. Nothing would drive him more nuts than knowing that the entire Section was was hearing the truth about him and the "stooges, lackeys, cronies, flunkies, and yes-men." Getting the emails of the whole section shouldn't be too hard as it seems most all of them read TPM! What a hoot. Maybe the people who employ Tanner will realize he's lost the moral authority to lead the Section and a housecleaning is in order.
October 28, 2007 9:28 PM | Reply | Permalink