Gonzales Refuses to Send Witness to Hill for Voting Rights Hearing

This civil rights news item from Raw Story probably went under most news radar screens, during a week when the Senate was in overnight session to attempt to overcome a Republican block on withdrawing troops from Iraq. The decimation of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division under this Administration is beginning to come under scrutiny from Congress. Attorney General Gonzales’ response— is to stonewall Committee requests for witnesses:

By Michael Roston

Gonzales Refuses to Send Witness to Hill for Voting Rights Hearing

Two House Democrats criticized Attorney General Alberto
Gonzales for refusing to send a witness to the House
Judiciary Committee for a hearing on voting rights. In
response, the committee postponed a hearing that had been
scheduled for this morning.

Reps. John Conyers and Jerrold Nadler, respectively the
Chairs of the House Judiciary Committee and Subcommittee
on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties, criticized
the decision by Gonzales.
"We are disappointed by this decision," they wrote to the
Attorney General. "Mr. Tanner’s testimony is important to the
Committee’s efforts to understand the manner in which the
Department has implemented its legislative mandate. As
Chief of the Voting Section, Mr. Tanner is personally familiar
with the facts surrounding the Department’s decisions in
significant and controversial voting rights cases. "
Gonzales had offered to send a Deputy Assistant Attorney
General in Tanner's place.
In the letter, the two Congressmembers also expressed their
desire to work with Gonzales to secure Tanner's testimony.

Controversy has emerged in the management of the Justice
Department's Civil Rights Division. Earlier in the year, an ex-
Justice employee told the House Committee that the office
had been heavily politicized with political appointees creating
an environment deemed hostile by many career attorneys,
who quite their posts. Subsequently, a former Voting Section
Chief acknowledged to the Senate Judiciary Committee that
he had bragged about primarily hiring Republicans for career
positions in a June hearing.