Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 10A
- FORSYTH COUNTY NEWS W»dn<»d«y, April 21,2004
Opinion
9/11 panelist called
nonpartisan, gave
heavily to Dems
WASHINGTON Jamie
Gorelick, the Clinton adminis
tration lawyer defended as a
wholly nonpartisan member of
the independent commission
investigating the 9/11 terrorist
attacks, has contributed more
heavily to political candidates
almost all Democrats than
any other commissioner.
Government records show
Gorelick. President Clinton's
deputy attorney general, donat
ing at least $32,500 to federal
candidates since 1998. Only
$4,250 of that total went to
Republicans. She gave the max
imum $2,000 to Sen. John
Kerry's presidential campaign
last year when he was struggling.
The commission chairman,
former Republican New Jersey-
Gov. Tom Kean, defended
borelick last Friday after House
Judiciary Committee Chairman
James Sensenbrenner called for
her resignation. Sensenbrenner
contended Gorelick had disqual
ified herself by constructing in
1995 the wall between the FBI
and the CIA under attack by the
commission.
Kerry’s discretion
Sources close to Sen. John
Kerry say he still feels the pain
of being passed over for vice
president four years ago and
wants to avoid inflicting that
punishment on any body else as
he picks his own running mate.
Kerry was announced as a
contestant in 2000 as Al Gore
held a public competition for
vice president. Sens. Joe
Lieberman and John Edwards
ended up as the finalists, with
Kerry eliminated early after
being led to believe he had a
real shot to be Gore's choice.
With Kerry determined not
to mislead anybody, no list of
prospects has been put out.
Unofficial lists come from peo
ple who are not close to the pre
sumptive presidential nominee
and do not know his mind.
Kerry’s mistake
Prospecting among thou
sands of words uttered by John
Kerry. Republican researchers
spotted gold Tuesday in a
Washington Post op-ed column
by the prospective Democratic
presidential nominee that
attempted a non-partisan
approach to Iraq.
"(W)e are seeing increasing
numbers of Iraqis." Kerry
wrote, "lashing out at the
United States to express their
frustration over what the Bush
administration has and hasn't
done." The unfortunate word
was "frustration," which
Republicans say Kerry applied
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to the Iraqi fighters who are
murdering Americans. That will
be used repeatedly against the
Democratic candidate.
Kerry has taken a less com
bative posture on Iraq since he
clinched the nomination, anger
ing some anti-war Democrats.
Describing the "frustration" of
Iraqi gunmen, therefore, was a
mistake rather than a calculated
strategy.
Karen for governor?
Following her impressive
performance on NBC's "Meet
the Press" April 4. Bush adviser
Karen Hughes’s friends and
supporters in both Washington
and Texas started quietly boost
ing her for governor of Texas in
2006.
Gov. Rick Perry, who suc
ceeded to the governorship in
2(X.X) w hen Gov. George W.
Bush became president, has
indicated he will seek another
term. But Perry has many ene
mies, and the w ord in Texas
political circles is that Sen. Kay
Bailey Hutchison could chal
lenge him for the Republican
nomination. Conservative
activists do not consider
Hughes one of them and are not
talking about her for governor.
However. Republican insiders
who are not fond of either Perry
or Hutchison are starting to pro
mote Hughes, a former televi
sion journalist who never has
run for public office.
Senate strategies
Senate Majority Leader Bill
Frist, facing Senate Democratic
Leader Tom Daschle's ultima
tum that could block all of
President Bush's judicial nomi
nations. is considering a tough
counter-strategy. Daschle has
threatened to prevent any vote
on 45 proposed federal judges
unless the president "gives
assurance" that he will not
make any more recess appoint
ments. Frist is being urged to
file cloture petitions, which
will cut off debate and force a
vote on each of the 45 stalled
judges. If Democratic disci
pline holds as it has in the
past, none of the judges will
get the 60 votes needed to
impose cloture. However.
Democrats may get the blame
for preventing the Senate from
doing business.
Robert Novak is a nation
ally syndicated columnist.
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An offer Regents could not refuse
To paraphrase a line from
"The Godfather," Thomas
Meredith made the Board of
Regents an offer it couldn't
refuse.
Either the regents pay
University System Chancellor
Meredith the SIBO,OOO they
owed him, or else.
What did the "or else"
mean? Meredith would walk
out as Georgia's chancellor,
move to Tennessee or some
other state thirsting for his tal
ents, and leave our regents
with a deserved reputation as
deadbeats.
So what were the regents
to do? Pay up. of course, but
come out as bad guys anyway.
Word still leaked that
Meredith had to play hardball
to get his money. When he got
it. he demanded and received
interest too.
At the time the re
gents/trustees hired Meredith
in 2001, they agreed to a
secret pact to sweeten his pay
check in SIBO,OOO increments
to be paid annually. The deal
blew up when the re
gents/trustees welched on the
final installment.
The Meredith episode adds
to a feeling among many
Georgians that the state's sys
tem of higher education has
fallen under a dark spell. The
regents and trustees have con
fused "independence" with
"secrecy" in administering the
public’s business.
Independent or not, the
University System should
strive for transparency in near
ly every transaction. A breach
of faith with the public is
implicit in its sour deal with
Bill .XI
Shipp
Meredith.
But there’s more.
In a vain attempt to save
face, individual members of
the Board of Regents reached
into their pockets and ponied
up the delinquent dollars for
the chancellor’s deferred com
pensation package. Meredith,
with his entire $480,450 annu
al paycheck intact, unpacked
his bags, settled back in his $2
million rent-free mansion and
grandly announced he would
n't be going to another state
after all. His conditions for
continued employment in
Georgia had been met.
Meredith's decision to go
public with an out-of-state job
offer to force the regents' hand
approaches our definition of
extortion.
However, to accuse the
chancellor of such behavior
may not be quite fair. He
could have been even tougher
in his collection tactics. He
could have hired someone to
threaten to break the regents'
legs.
Making the chancellor’s
paycheck whole raises more
questions.
What are the names of the
generous souls who coughed
up the additional ducats? And
how much did each contribute
to maintaining Meredith in the
lifestyle to which he has
become accustomed?
The University System
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refuses to say.
The University System
Board of Trustees has hired a
silk-stocking Atlanta lawyer.
Jack Schroder, to inform the
public that the trustees will
not identify the people who
privately pay state employee
Tom Meredith.
Dr. Jan Kentwell, executive
director of the University
System of Georgia Foun
dation. informs us: "On the
advice of our attorney, Mr.
Jack Schroder, I must respect
fully decline to provide you
with names of individual
donors. The Open Records Act
specifically exempts from dis
closure any records which are
otherwise prohibited by law
from being open to inspection
by the general public."
That decision raises still
another question, to wit: If
Mystery Regent X contributed
SIO,OOO to Meredith and
Mystery Regent Y gave
$50,000, does that mean the
chancellor is more beholden to
Regent Y than to Regent X? In
other words, who is the chan
cellor's boss of bosses among
the regents and trustees?
If the Meredith mess could
be written off as a single inci
dent of poor judgment, most
Georgians could simply snick
er and move on. But it is
emblematic of a growing pat
tern of secret deals and broken
(or misunderstood) promises
made to high-level university
system administrators.
Example: The genesis of
the still-simmering controver
sy involving UGA President
Michael Adams and exiting
Athletics Director Vince
Dooley can be traced to the
shifty behavior of the regents
and some University of
Georgia trustees (not to be
confused with University
System trustees).
Luckily for UGA, several
of its trustees demanded anti
septic sunshine on their
actions, which prevented UGA
from becoming totally infect
ed by infighting between aca
demics and athletics.
Too bad the regents can’t
follow the Bulldogs’ example
and come clean about every
aspect of the Thomas
Meredith affair.
Georgia doesn't have much
to brag about, but its system of
higher education has improved
steadily over the years.
Because of past-enlightened
leadership, we are in a region
al league with Virginia and
North Carolina instead of
Mississippi and Alabama.
And. nationally. Georgia Tech
comes close to keeping us on
a par with MIT and Caltech.
Now the regents struggle
with providing Tyco-type
perks to top executives, while
its institutions' staff and much
of the faculty are paid rock
bottom wages and. in some
cases, face layoffs.
The Meredith debacle sug
gests we have slipped because
we have lost our leadership
compass and ability to put
learning ahead of gold-plated
grandiosity in establishing pri
orities in public higher educa
tion.
Bill Shipp's column
appears each Wednesday and
Sunday. His e-mail address is
bshipp@ bellsouth.net.