Bush the Infallible, the Immaculate... does he have divine guidance ?

President Bush, simply ignores the wishes of the elected representatives whenever he wants, either adding signature clauses to bills, undertaking breathtaking breaches of the constitution - use of torture, breach of habeus corpus, making war as he wishes, warrantelss wiretapping and electronic surveillance - Jeffersonian participatory democracy is for export, not home consumption with this bone head.

He is at it again ... Just as he appointed John Bolton to the post of UN Ambassador utilising the Senate recess to deliberately appoint him. His excellency King George has now appointed Richard Stickler to head the Mine Safety and Health Administration in deliberate defiance of the Senate, which he is allowed to do without Senate approval , when Congress is out of session.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist was forced to cancel a vote on Stickler's confirmation last June due the lack of Senate support for Stickler's nomination. Then in August, in an unprecedented action, the Senate returned Stickler's nomination to the White House before it went on break. But refusing to take the hint, the President renominated Stickler at the beginning of September. The Senate unamused and unmoved by this direct confrontation on their authroity again returned the nomination to the White House.

Senators Ted Kennedy and Robert Byrd have led the opposition to Stickler, citing his industry background and the lack of commitment to MSHA reform that he displayed at his confirmation hearing. The AFL-CIO, United Mine Workers of America, United Steelworkers, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, and the International Brothers of Boilermakers have all called on Bush to withdraw the nomination.

Kennedy called for a new nominee:

“We are in the midst of a mine safety crisis — 58 miners have already died this year, more than any year since 2002.

Thirty-eight coal miners and 20 metal/non-metal miners have died in the workplace this year which began with the tragic January 2 Sago Mine disaster in which 12 coal miners died."

On his website Senator Kennedy said of Stickler

"Mr. Stickler has spent the overwhelming part of his career as a coal industry executive, focused on profits and production, not on worker safety. In fact, mines where he was in charge had injury rates far above the national average.... During his tenure as head of the Pennsylvania Bureau of Deep Mine Safety, he was well known for granting exceptions from safety rules for mining companies. He even bent critical rules designed to prevent mien fires on conveyor belts and to guarantee that miners could reach safe places to protect themselves from runaway railcars......

...... read on at the website how mining company interests were protected and promoted

Bush as ever , was not listening. His nominee, with an appalling record of overseeing mines with incredibly poor safety records stood for nothing.. nobody was going to tell George Bush what to do. Fuck the Senate - they only represent the people. It was a dialogue of the deaf on his side.

The full story is at the excellent (must read) ;"Confined Space News and Commentary on Workplace Health & Safety, Labor and Politics " and posted last week.