WASHINGTON, Jan. 14 (UPI) -- Capital Comment -- Daily news notes, political rumors and important events that shape politics and public policy in Washington and the world from United Press International.
A taxing situation...
The White House has announced the president's intention to nomination Mark Everson to be the new commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service. Everson is at present the deputy director of the federal Office of Management and Budget, where he helps executive branch agencies strengthen the performance and management of their programs.
Replacing Everson inside the OMB will be Clay Johnson III, a longtime Bush associate who currently heads up the Office of Presidential Personnel. A trusted adviser, Johnson has served with the president since Texas, where he was director of appointments and then executive assistant to the governor.
Taking over from Johnson will be Dina Powell, who is currently special assistant to the president for presidential personnel. Powell, who served in the personnel office inside the Bush-Cheney transition team, is a veteran of Capitol Hill, having been a member of the senior staff of former House Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Texas. She also served as director of congressional affairs for the Republican National Committee during the chairmanship of Jim Nicholson, currently the United States Ambassador to the Holy See.
Government Oversight overhaul...
Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., a GOP moderate who is not known for letting grass grow under his feet, has had a meteoric rise in Congress. As a freshman member of the U.S. House, Davis, who represents a district just outside the nation's capital, was handed the chairmanship of the subcommittee with oversight of the District of Columbia. After the 1998 elections, Davis was the elected chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee where he was responsible for overseeing GOP incumbent and challenger election efforts.
Davis has just assumed the chair of the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee, taking over for the term-limited Dan Burton, R-Ind., and reportedly has moved quickly to put his own stamp on the committee -- home to a number of important investigations into alleged misdeeds in the Clinton administration under former chairman Bill Clinger of Pennsylvania and Burton.
According to several sources, Davis asked for the resignation of every member of the full committee staff -- common practice when a new chairman takes over. What is unusual is the suggestion that all resignations where accepted (the committee did not return calls seeking to confirm that this had occurred).
Some argue this is normal and just part of the process of a new chairman establishing who is in charge of the committee. Others suggest that this is just one more example of Davis purging conservatives from an institution over which he has been given control.
All we are saying...
As the run up to possible war with Iraq continues, a number of outside actors are still trying to establish the terms under which a military strike could occur in other circumstances. One such group, organized by the Fund for Peace, will present their conclusion on Wednesday in an open forum at the Carnegie Center in Washington.
The representatives of 16 European countries met behind closed doors earlier in the week to discuss criteria for military intervention, establishing three triggers for such action: genocide, mass killings and possibly other "gross violations of human rights," such as ethnic cleansing.
The Europeans claim a preference for acting within the framework of U.N. procedures and norms, but recognize that, on a case-by-case basis, there might be exceptional circumstances that require other organizations to act when the United Nations is unable or unwilling to act. The group stresses their recommendations apply only to military intervention in massive humanitarian crises arising from internal conflicts and therefore do not apply to Iraq.
Checking in...
Mahdi Bray, the charismatic but controversial leader of the Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation, is asking Congress to hold hearings into the new Immigration and Naturalization Service program requiring all male visitors to the United States age 16 and older from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Sudan and Syria to have registered in person with the agency by Dec. 16, 2002. The new program also requires men from 13 other countries to have registered by Jan. 10, 2003, while men from Saudi Arabia and Pakistan must register by Feb. 21.
In a letter to House Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., Bray writes, "So far, thousands of such visitors to America have responded to the INS program. They have come forward out of respect for our country's laws, expecting in turn to be treated with respect and in accordance with those laws. However, as you may know, the INS has arrested hundreds of these visitors, many of whom were in the process of applying for permanent residency status and had a legal right to be in the U.S. Worse, there are numerous reports that such detainees have been treated in an undignified manner unbecoming of our nation."
The MAS Freedom Foundation wants the committee to look into what it calls the agencies failure to publicize the new program in a timely fashion, the lack of adequate staff and the problems that led to the arrest of many who the society says should not have been detained.
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