Berry, Berry, Quite Contrary, Now It’s Time To Go

The Los Angeles Times reports that President Bush is about to replace Mary Frances Berry, the contention head (and member for 24 of its 47 years) of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.

There may be some fireworks as she goes, since the president claims her term expires December 5 and she says it lasts until Jan. 21.

Under Berry’s leadership the agency has been cited for mismanagement a number of times by the General Accounting Office, and in a typical maneuver last Wednesday Berry and her co-chairman released a harsh attack on Bush’s civil rights record, asserting that “the spiraling demise of hope for social justice and healing has deepened over the past four years.”

A deeper spiraling demise? Oh well.

Their report had not been approved by the commission, and opponents saw it less as a statement about Bush’s record than a comment on Berry’s.

“That’s Berry’s attempt to prepare the ground for the battle ahead,” one former staff member who still worked in the federal government said on the condition of anonymity. “She wants the story to be about Bush ‘retaliating’ against them for issuing a report that makes him look bad.”