Alert: Cass Sunstein Cloture Vote Scheduled

 

Cass Sunstein Nomination Vote – #167

 

On Friday, August 7th, Senator Harry Reid filed a vote for cloture, #167, on the Executive Calendar that could appoint another presidential nominee with known radically extreme views to be Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs ("Regulatory Czar") in the Office of Management and Budget. Back on May 20, 2009, Sunstein went through a nomination process and was approved to this position by the Senate Committee on Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs, chaired by Senator Joseph Lieberman. Senator Johnny Isakson’s (R-Georgia) expressed opposition to the Sunstein appointment, which is when Senator Reid scheduled the cloture vote in an attempt to force a confirmation vote. Unlike the Czar appointments, Sunstein needs a 60-majority Senate aye vote to be confirmed. That vote is scheduled for Wednesday, September 9th, 2009, and those opposing another radical with enormous White House influence and power are being urged to vote no.

Cass Sunstein: An Introduction

Cass Sunstein, born in 1954, received his education in the nation’s top schools. Graduating high school in 1972 from the private Middlesex School in Concord, MA, he went on to earn his Bachelors of Arts and then his J.D. from Harvard. After law school, he then began his career clerking for Massachusetts Supreme Court Justice Benjamin Kaplan and later Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall. Sunstein also worked in the Office of Legal Counsel at the Justice Department, and as professor of law at the University of Chicago Law School and Harvard Law School.  Sunstein is now married to  Samantha Power, public policy professor at Harvard. Both Sunstein and his wife were active in the Obama presidential campaign. Samantha Powers is the woman temporarily relieved from her Obama campaign position because of remarks she made about Hillary Clinton. Once the election was over and Obama had claimed victory, Powers then eased back into the Obama administration graces in late November 2008, helping with the transition team and then being named to a position on the National Security Council.

More important than where Sunstein went to school are viewpoints that Sunstein has expressed through public speech and printed publications. At some point the resume, while impressive in its initial review, should take secondary consideration in the hiring process and further interviews and vetting be required for all government leaders and their influencers seeking appointment to upper-level positions. Sunstein has many publications and speeches on record, so understanding his political position on a variety of topics as it relates to policy should not be a difficult task. Many of Sunstein’s expressed viewpoints are considered not only outside mainstream America but radically to the left of center.

To Hire Sunstein or Not To Hire

Some of those views expressed that are considered controversial include:

• Sunstein believes the First Amendment law should be reformulated, according to his book Democracy and the Problem of Free Speech. In this publication, Sunstein stated, " A legislative effort to regulate broadcasting in the interest of democratic principles should not be seen as an abridgment of the free speech guarantee." Opponents of Sunstein’s philosophy regarding the first amendment fear the reemergence of the Fairness Doctrine that would have an impact on conservative viewpoints, who have come to rely on information obtained from radio and internet programs. 
• Sunstein is quoted as stating that, "we could event grant animals a right to bring suit…..that before long, Congress will grant standing to animals to protect their own rights and interests."
• In Radical in Robes, Sunstein writes, "Almost all gun control legislation is constitutionally fine. And if the Court is right, then fundamentalism does not justify the view that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to bear arms." There are many quotes by Sunstein regarding his position on the Second Amendment. In a 2007 Harvard University speech, Sunstein stated, "We ought to ban hunting."
• In a 2004 paper, Fear & Liberty, Sunstein wrote, "Courts should ordinarily require restrictions on civil liberties to be authorized by the lesislature, not simply by the executive."
• According to Sunstein, "tax day" should be celebrated. In the 1999 Chicago Tribune article, Why We Should Celebrate Paying Taxes, he condescendingly addresses tax-paying readers, "In what sense is the money in our pockets and bank accounts fully ‘ours’?… There is no liberty without dependency. That is why we should celebrate tax day…"
• In Sunstein’s The Second Bill of Rights: FDR’s Unfinished Revolution and Why We Need it More Than Ever, he writes, "My major aim in this book is to uncover an important but neglected part of America’s heritage: the idea of a second bill of rights. In brief, the second bill attempts to protect both opportunity and security, by creating rights of employment, adequate food and clothing, decent shelter, education, recreation, and medical care."

The list of quotes goes on and on. Check Wikipedia for a full list of papers and books he has had published. The radical changes to the constitution and way of life that Sunstein supports, while applauded by certain academics and progressive radicals, does not represent the same vision shared by the majority of mainstream America. Men and women such as Sunstein that are being endorsed by the current administration and the progressives now controlling the House, Senate, and many of the Committees in Washington need to be vetted. Period. Americans need to follow-up and let their representatives know when they object to questionable appointments to these powerful positions. Thankfully, Sunstein’s appointment, unlike other unvetted Obama Czar appointments, is getting the attention of Americans and the Senators’ phones lines are feeling the heat.