Traver nomination as Kabuki Theater.

Kabuki (歌舞伎,) is the highly stylized classical Japanese dance-drama. Kabuki theatre is known for the stylization of its drama and for the elaborate make-up worn by some of its performers. The individual kanji characters, from left to right, mean sing (歌), dance (舞), and skill (伎). Kabuki is therefore sometimes translated as "the art of singing and dancing." . . . The kanji of 'skill', however, generally refers to a performer in kabuki theatre. Since the word kabuki is believed to derive from the verb kabuku, meaning "to lean" or "to be out of the ordinary", kabuki can be interpreted as "avant-garde" or "bizarre" theatre. The expression kabukimono (歌舞伎者) referred originally to those who were bizarrely dressed and swaggered on a street. -- Wikipedia.

Folks,

First, I would like to welcome all of our new visitors trolling here for Traver tidbits, especially those from the DOJ and its subordinate agencies as well as an intriguing newcomer from
Booz Allen Hamilton of McLean, Virginia.

Booz Allen Hamilton, or more commonly Booz Allen, is an American private consulting firm headquartered in McLean, Virginia . . . Ralph Shrader is its Chairman and Chief Executive Officer -- the seventh since Edwin Booz founded the firm in Chicago circa 1914, making it one of the nation’s oldest consultancies. Booz Allen's core business is contractual work completed on behalf of the US federal government, foremost on defense and homeland security matters, with limited engagements of foreign governments specific to U.S. military assistance programs . . .

In 2006 at the request of the Article 29 Working Group, an advisory group to the European Commission (EC), the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and Privacy International (PI) investigated the U.S. government's SWIFT surveillance program and Booz Allen's role therein. The ACLU and PI filed a memo at the end of their investigation which called into question the ethics and legality of a government contractor (in this case Booz Allen) acting as auditors of a government program, when that contractor is heavily involved with those same agencies on other contracts. The basic statement was that a conflict of interest may exist. Beyond that, the implication was also made that Booz Allen may be complicit in a program (electronic surveillance of SWIFT) that may be deemed illegal by the EC.

Another controversy related to some of the senior staff of Booz Allen (past and present) and related to its performance on some specific U.S. intelligence agency contracts was brought to light on January 12, 2007 in an interview conducted by Democracy Now! with Tim Shorrock, an independent investigative journalist, and separately in an article he wrote for the Salon online magazine. Through investigation of Booz Allen employees, Shorrock asserts that there is a sort of revolving-door conflict of interest between Booz Allen and the U.S. government, and between multiple other contractors and the U.S. government in general. Regarding Booz Allen, Shorrock referred to such people as John M. McConnell, R. James Woolsey, Jr., and James R. Clapper, all of whom have gone back and forth between government and industry (Booz Allen in particular), and who may present the appearance that certain government contractors receive undue or unlawful business from the government, and that certain government contractors may exert undue or unlawful influence on government. Shorrock further relates that Booz Allen was a sub-contractor with two programs at the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA), called Trailblazer and Pioneer Groundbreaker.

A June 28, 2007 Washington Post article related how a U.S. Department of Homeland Security contract with Booz Allen increased from $2 million to more than $70 million through two no-bid contracts, one occurring after the DHS's legal office had advised DHS not to continue the contract until after a review. A Government Accountability Office (GAO) report on the contract characterized it as not well-planned and lacking any measure for assuring valuable work to be completed. -- Wikipedia.

It is nice to know I'm being checked up on by such upright, well-intentioned folks -- no doubt under another no-bid contract.

Subsequent to my first post today on the Traver nomination below, I received some feedback from that patriotic clandestine agent on the side of truth and justice at ATF headquarters, the elusive Waldo as well as one or two other friends. Their combined analysis, while not contradicting anything I have written, is as follows and reflects a keener understanding Washington inside baseball.

This whole business is likely premeditated and choreographed Kabuki theater. Some readers will recall the nomination of Michael J. Sullivan. Sullivan was made acting director and then nominated for permanency by Dubya but very quickly had a hold put on his nomination by Louisiana Senator David Vitter. Sullivan then remained as acting director.

It is true, as I said, that no one gets made permanent Director without a potentially embarrassing oversight hearing. And it is also true that Congress doesn't like recess appointments. But what matters here is not the TITLE but the POWER.

A recess appointment is the appointment, by the President of the United States, of a senior federal official while the Senate is in recess. The U.S. Constitution requires that the most senior federal officers must normally be confirmed by the Senate before assuming office. However while the U.S. Senate is in recess the President can act alone by making a recess appointment. To remain in effect a recess appointment must be approved by the Senate by the end of the next session of Congress, or the position becomes vacant again; in current practice this means that a recess appointment must be approved by roughly the end of the next calendar year. -- Wikipedia.

So, what likely will happen -- according to Waldo, et al -- is that with exquisite bureaucratic timing, Acting Director Traver can run the clock, avoiding confirmation hearings until they are mooted by the 2012 elections.

Of course, if the Congressional oversight committee chairmanships change hands after the fall elections, this could still make Traver's tenure a living hell for him, his bosses and his anti-firearm agenda. But in the mean time, the Chicago Gang will have seized control of the agency from Melson and put a stop to his modest campaign to put a common-sense legal and regulatory straight jacket on the jack-booted thugs of the Chief Counsel's Office.

Of course, if the DOJ starts to think that Traver is too radioactive to its agenda with or without confirmation hearings, then they just might drop him like a plutonium potato anyway. Remember, in that town it is the agenda, rather than the man, which is all important. Kabuki theater or not, it is the tyrannical play which must go on.

Mike
III