The press is abuzz with the diversity of the candidates Bush has nominated for Cabinet-level posts so far: Four women, two African Americans, two Latinos, one Asian American and one Arab American. He's even included a token Democrat, Norman Mineta for Transportation Secretary. Bush is being credited, too, for his choice of some "moderates" for his cabinet: Colin Powell, his nominee for Secretary of State, supports both affirmative action and abortion rights. Christine Todd Whitman, the pro-choice Governor of New Jersey, was tapped to head the Environmental Protection Agency.
But take a closer look, and the supposed "moderation" is all smoke and mirrors. Each of the so-called "moderates" he has nominated are conservative in the areas over which they will have authority.
For example, yes, Whitman is pro-choice. But, as Director of the EPA, what impact will that have on the Bush Administration's abortion policies? None. But her laissez-faire, pro-business approach to enforcement of pollution regulations will certainly have an impact at the EPA. Whitman's record of cutting New Jersey's environmental protection budget, and lax enforcement of pollution laws already has a few conservationists up in arms over the selection. Even the more optimistic among the environmental community - although encouraged by her opposition to ocean dumping, and her public lands preservation initiative - are nervous about her potential impact at a time when the nation's major environmental protection laws are up for renewal.
Colin Powell's pro-choice views may have slightly more impact in his position as Secretary of State - but not in this country. It can be hoped that his views may assist in advancing international women's rights, especially in third-world countries. But Madeline Albright - a staunch supporter of women's rights - was unable to get Jesse Helms' Foreign Relations Committee to vote on something as basic and generally uncontroversial as the U.N. Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). Her efforts to prevent Congress from gagging international family planning organizations also fell on deaf ears year after year, until last October.
It's doubtful that Powell will be more effective than Albright in advancing official US support for international women's rights. And given his oft-stated reluctance to use America's superpower status - and the threat of force that status implies - in the service of diplomacy, it seems likely that his effect on other country's policies will be marginal at best. What, for instance, will be his appeal to the Taliban regime in Afganistan? "Please don't oppress your women, because we really don't like that"?
Meanwhile, in the federal agencies with the largest potential impact on women's rights in this country, Justice, Labor, and Health and Human Services, the nominees are each conservative in ways which specifically threaten programs and policies which have helped women overcome obstacles in both personal and economic arenas. That is, they not only threaten women's continued progress toward equality, but threaten to roll back past gains as well.
Next page > John Ashcroft: Nightmare on Constitution Avenue. > Page 2, 3, 4
