In the midst of all the gnashing of teeth and rendering of garments that has been abounding throughout the land of orange over the past 24 hours, I thought a bit of good news was in order. Michael Baroody, the former head of the National Association of Manufacturers, has withdrawn his name from consideration to head the Consumer Protection Agency. This fox is not getting into the hen-house. So give yourself a pat on the back and remember that every victory in this battle is a step closer to winning the war. More on the flip...
Edit: I forgot to give a h/t to Steve Benen at The Carpetbagger Report where I found the link to the USA Today article. If you don't read The Carpetbagger Report , you should.
Here is the article in USA Today. A few choice bits:
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Bush's pick to head the Consumer Product Safety Commission withdrew his nomination Wednesday amid strong opposition from some Senate Democrats because of his career as a manufacturers' lobbyist.
The White House said it was reluctantly accepting the decision by Michael Baroody after "some members in the Senate rushed to judgment."
It is to laugh. Some members rushed to judgement? It's not like this guy wasn't the anathema to everything that the CPSC stands for or anything. It's all about some mean Democratic senators who "rushed to judgement" which is refuted by the facts in the next 2 paragraphs:
Baroody is a lobbyist for the National Association of Manufacturers, and his critics on Capitol Hill said he would not provide the leadership the agency needed in order to protect consumers.
Democrats also had raised questions about a $150,000 payment that Baroody would have received from the manufacturers' lobbying group when he left.
It follows with a whole lot of boo hoo'ing from the white house and the current president of NAM, John Engler, about how the mean old democrats just don't understand and this is why you can't get good people to work for the government etc, etc.
What a crock. They tried to push this one through and "talking point" their way through scrutiny and realized it wasn't worth the fight. The knew it was indefensible and that there was now too much publicity to have it not be a major impact in the news cycle.
The whole article, although short, is really worth a read just to see the WATB quotes. Another interesting tidbit at the end that I did not know: "Under federal law, CPSC can operate with two commissioners for just six months." So since January, they have not been able to vote on or approve anything. A nice point to use as further pressure to get someone nominated ASAP who can be confirmed that actually has the interests of consumers at heart. In essence, we have not had a CPSC since January of this year and don't have it until the post is filled.