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While Berry may have postponed discussion of Memogate, her day of reckoning regarding the finances of the Civil Rights Commission may come much sooner.


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Democrat Memogate: Standoff at the Civil Rights Commission

The United States Commission on Civil Rights did not meet on May 17, the date marking the 50th Anniversary of the unanimous Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education that mandated integration of America’s public schools.

The Commission was scheduled to meet and, as readers of this website and Robert Novak’s column know, set to discuss Commissioner Peter Kirsanow’s request that staff monitor investigations of attempts to fix a more recent civil rights case. The Commission was also set to discuss potential financial improprieties under the leadership of dictatorial Chairperson Mary Frances Berry.

Neither discussion was likely to feature Berry in a favorable light, although, after years of controversy at the Commission, Berry has demonstrated time and again that her reputation, and that of the Commission, are secondary to the survival of her fiefdom. It is no secret that Kirsanow and others believe the Commission is an embarrassment of government waste and abuse, a political platform for Berry’s biases and diatribes.

The Commission didn’t meet on May 17 because a number of Commissioners were between 10 and 15 minutes late, and Berry gaveled the proceedings into adjournment before they ever really started for lack of a quorum. That, despite the fact that Commission meetings rarely start on time, as most of the Commissioners live elsewhere and travel to Washington for the sole purpose of attending meetings. Berry, herself, is frequently late to meetings, but they don’t get cancelled when she’s late.

The media, alerted by Novak’s timely column to the potential war of words between the unstoppable Kirsanow and the immovable Berry, had turned out. But Berry dodged the oncoming train by her parliamentary ploy, demonstrating, in yet another venue, the organized stonewalling of the Memogate scandal.

While Berry may have postponed discussion of Memogate, her day of reckoning regarding the finances of the Civil Rights Commission may come much sooner. Attorneys for the House Judiciary Committee, which has oversight responsibilities for the Commission, were in the audience awaiting the discussion of finances when the meeting was abruptly adjourned. They then attempted to meet privately with Berry, who instead quickly disappeared through a back door.

"Congress provides the commission with approximately $9 million a year of taxpayer money. It is an insult to Congress and to taxpayers for Ms. Berry to sneak out the back door and refuse to account for hers and the commissioners’ actions." That’s what Julia Tomala, chief oversight counsel for the House Judiciary Committee told Steve Miller of The Washington Times.

Mary Frances Berry undoubtedly thinks of herself as a civil rights leader. So did Elaine Jones, the former president of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, now inextricably at the center of the Memogate scandal. Both disgrace a worthy and once mighty cause. Both now stonewall inevitable judgment. The true cause of civil rights would benefit immensely if that judgment was issued from within rather than from without.


[Posted May 20, 2004]