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Jonathan Karl: Storm clouds hover over 3 Bush nominations

Jonathan Karl
Jonathan Karl  

CNN Congressional Correspondent Jonathan Karl is reporting from Washington on the controversy surrounding three of President-elect George W. Bush's Cabinet picks.

Q: What sort of storm is brewing on Capitol Hill over Bush's nominations?

KARL: First of all, as we've been reporting for quite some time, the three most embattled nominees are Linda Chavez for Labor, John Ashcroft for Attorney General and Gale Norton for Interior.

The storm clouds are darkest over Chavez right now. In fact, even before this latest revelation about the illegal immigrant living in her home, she was considered perhaps the most vulnerable nominee, because she already faced strong opposition from a wide range of special interest groups. And she doesn't have much of a constituency to lead her defense.

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The Chavez confirmation hearing will be before Sen. Ted Kennedy's committee. Remember, the Senate is now split 50-50, and the Health, Education and Labor Committee is one of those committees that has a very sharp ideological division.

It has some of the most conservative members of the Senate on it on the Republican side, and it has some of the most liberal members of the Senate on the Democratic side.

So, this is going to be a bruising committee. Some Democratic staffers on the committee are telling me that they believe they have a very good chance of defeating this nomination.

From the beginning, Democrats had their knives out for Chavez because she had been a staunch opponent of minimum wage, of affirmative action and a number of other issues dear to the hearts of liberal constituencies. Now, they've got this issue of the illegal immigrant and questions about whether she was paid by Chavez: Did she pay Social Security taxes? Did she violate the law against harboring an illegal immigrant?

These are all issues that have very little to do with the initial opposition of Chavez. But what it does is give opposition groups something else to use against her and, perhaps, something that will be more effective.

As a footnote, even some Republicans up here on the Hill acknowledge Chavez's nomination is in trouble.

On the flip side of this, conservative groups are privately urging the Bush team not to abandon her. The reason: They believe that if Bush abandons Chavez, it will embolden the Democratic interest groups to go after other nominees. And it would be seen as a sign of weakness on the part of George W. Bush.

So, these groups are saying, regardless of what you think about Chavez, what's more important here is that President-elect Bush send a message that not only will he stand by nominees, but also his legislative proposals in the face of stiff opposition.

Q: Is it common for a president-elect's nominee to get defeated?

KARL: A new president usually gets his nominees. What's interesting here is that you've got some interest groups fighting nominations that haven't really objected much in the past. For instance, the Sierra Club, which has announced its opposition to Gale Norton and John Ashcroft, did not oppose a single nominee for George W. Bush's father.

With nominees, you always get some yelling and screaming, but nominations tend to go through. The ones that don't are notable because they're the exception that proves the rule. We still talk about them. We talk about John Tower, the defeated nominee for defense secretary under President Bush.

But for the most part, the Senate tends to give the new president the benefit of the doubt.

In fact, George W. Bush may get everybody. He's got a couple of tough confirmation fights, but the majority of his nominations are going to sail through the Senate.

Q: What are the battles the Bush team faces with the Ashcroft nomination?

KARL: On Tuesday, a broad coalition of liberal Democratic groups stepped forward to oppose Ashcroft. It's a coalition that includes pro-gun control groups, abortion rights groups and environmental groups.

It's a coalition that some Democrats are billing as the broadest coalition ever to oppose a Cabinet nominee. With that said, Ashcroft has already had several Democrats come out and say they are positively inclined to support his nomination. Most people up here, even those who will ultimately oppose his nomination, are acknowledging Ashcroft will be extremely difficult to defeat.

But you are going to hear a lot of noise before he's ultimately appointed, if he is.

Q: What are the main objections from Democrats over the selection of Gale Norton?

KARL: A coalition of environmental groups plans to come out and present what they are calling a united front against Gale Norton. It's a coalition that will include the Sierra Club, Friends of the Earth and League of Conservation Voters.

Gale Norton is what conservatives like to call a free-market environmentalist. As such, she has in the past been very critical of certain environmental regulations. She's been a big proponent of property rights and raised concerns about the government taking control of too much private property.

But it's a much smaller coalition going against Gale Norton.

There's one interesting side note to all this: Gale Norton is pro-choice. Now, that has absolutely nothing to do with what she would be doing as Interior secretary. But it just points up the fact that her fight will be over much narrower issues.


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Tuesday, January 9, 2001


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