- "In the Bush administration, governing is a family
matter," writes Dana Milbank in The Washington Post, who reveals a
list of appointments that looks, to many, like downright nepotism.
-
- "Two weeks ago, the State Department announced that
Elizabeth Cheney, the vice president's daughter, would become a deputy
assistant secretary of state. Her husband, Philip Perry, last week left
the Justice Department to become chief counsel for the Office of Management
and Budget. There, Cheney's son-in-law will join OMB Director Mitchell
E. Daniels Jr., whose sister, Deborah Daniels, is an assistant attorney
general.
-
- "That's just the beginning," notes Milbank.
"Among Deborah Daniels's colleagues at Justice is young Chuck James,
whose mother, Kay Coles James, is the director of the Office of Personnel
Management, and whose father, Charles Sr., is a top Labor Department official.
Charles James Sr.'s boss, Labor Secretary Elaine L. Chao, knows about having
family members in government: Her husband is Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.),
and her department's top lawyer, Labor Solicitor Eugene Scalia, is the
son of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.
-
- "Everybody knows the Bush administration is famously
loyal. One reason Bush aides are like family is because some of them are
family. Ken Mehlman, the White House political director, regularly calls
his younger brother Bruce, an assistant commerce secretary, to get his
input. 'He's a great adviser - I trust him like a brother,' quips Ken.
-
- "Deputy White House press secretary Scott McClellan
recently found himself in front of the microphones introducing a member
of the president's Council of Economic Advisers, Mark McClellan. Scott
called Mark 'my older, smaller brother,' and Mark replied: 'Thanks, my
larger brother.'
-
- "The Bush administration bloodlines begin at the
top and flow through the rank and file," notes Millbank. "Secretary
of State Colin L. Powell is the father of Michael Powell, chairman of the
Federal Communications Commission. The director of the Federal Trade Commission's
office of policy planning, Ted Cruz, is married to a senior official in
the US Trade Representative's office, Heidi Cruz. 'It's a little bit like
having adjoining booths at the county fair,' she says.
-
- "Also on the fairgrounds are FCC commissioner Kevin
Martin, married to Cheney aide Cathie Martin, and Cheney aide Nina Rees,
spouse of White House speechwriter Matthew Rees. The brother of National
Economic Council staffer John Ackerly begins work later this year on the
president's Council of Economic Advisers. OMB spokesman Chris Ullman served
in the administration with his wife, Kris, a Justice Department official,
until the couple's daughter was born 14 weeks ago. 'She's never worked
in the administration,' he says of the infant.
-
- "Then there are the inter-branch families. Chief
Justice William Rehnquist's daughter is at the Department of Health and
Human Services. Bush is now pushing the Senate to confirm US District Judge
Charles W. Pickering as an appellate judge. He's the father of Rep. Charles
W. "Chip" Pickering Jr., a Mississippi Republican. If successful,
the Pickering duo would join father-son combinations Jim Bunning (a Republican
senator from Kentucky) and David Bunning (confirmed last month as a federal
judge) and Strom Thurmond (South Carolina Republican senator) and Strom
Jr. (new US attorney in South Carolina).
-
- "Some appointments have brought questions of nepotism
... Administration officials say the appointees are qualified in their
own right." State Department spokesman Richard Boucher denied a report
that the deputy assistant secretary position was created for Elizabeth
Cheney.
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- http://www.arabnews.com/Article.asp?ID=13493
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