Wherein I do Tom Perez. Part 1

I paid too little attention to Disgraceful Debbie Wasserman Shultz until 2015, but I'll get to Tom Perez now. Although I usually favor chronological order, today I begin with this past Saturday.

Right after the election of Tom Perez as DNC chair, President Not Hillary tweeted to the effect that, among other things, Tom's victory was good news for the Republican Party (possibly right, for those people who viewed the election as an event). Perez, who is known as Tom Perez in everything I've read, including his own wiki, then tweet trolled the President of the United States with, "Don't call me Tom;" and a threat that Democratic P.U.(Party Unity) would destroy the President of the United States (which tweet troll drew responses from many Demexiters).

Gee, Tom, now first among Dems, primus inter pares, as they used to say in Rome when Julius Caesar was a mere military tribune, what happened to rooting against the POTUS is both unpatriotic and self-defeating? http://caucus99percent.com/content/frigate-ship-happens Guess it's only canon fodder now. (See what I did there?) FWIW, my pick for DNC chair was Raymond Buckley, who said that the Democratic Party needs to grow up and focus on doing something about the economic futures of Americans, instead of on Trump insults. http://www.mediaite.com/online/grow-up-dnc-chair-candidate-says-democrat...

Although Tom and others have no doubt scrubbed Tom's wiki until it was raw, I am relying on it for this series anyway. It says that Tom's father was a Dominican-born doctor who earned his citizenship after serving during World War II, then worked in a Veterans Affairs facility. Does that mean his Dad was an undocumented immigrant until he earned his citizenship? An early Dreamer? That would be cool, but Tom's wiki doesn't say. Tom's mom was born in the Dominican Republic, too. She first came to the US because her dad was appointed ambassador to the US from the Dominican Republic. I'm thinking some money and some contacts were part of Tom's birthright. Ah, can't you already smell nascent neoliberal? But wait! There's more!

Although Tom's father was a government employee who passed when Tom was only twelve, the family was able to provide a good education for Tom and his four siblings: Tom's siblings, all older than he, are doctors, or, as his wiki says, "physicians." In 1979, after Tom was graduated from an all-male Roman Catholic Jesuit private school in Buffalo, he entered Brown University. His wiki says that he made his way through Brown University with Pell grants and working various jobs. That may indeed be so, but I still think some money and contacts were involved to supplement those grants and part-time or summer jobs. Brown ain't cheap. Neither is living away from home.

Seems as though Tom was preparing for government work from the off: In 1983, Tom received a B.A. in international relations and political science Brown; and, in 1987, Tom received a J. D. cum laude from Harvard Law School and a Master of Public Policy from the John F. Kennedy School of Government (a joint degree program, perhaps). While a student, Tom clerked for (Reagan's) Attorney General Edwin Meese in 1986 (I assume during the summer before his final year in law school: Washington, D.C. is too hefty a commute from Cambridge, MA.) Next...

He {Tom} worked as a law clerk for the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado before serving in the Department of Justice from 1989 {Poppy Bush's administratios} to 1995 {Clinton's}, where he worked as a federal prosecutor, and as Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights under Attorney General Janet Reno. He worked as a Special Counselor for Senator Ted Kennedy until 1998 when he served as the Director of the Office for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in the final years of the Clinton administration.

Perez was then elected to the Montgomery County (Maryland) Council in 2002, serving as the council's president from 2005, until the end of his tenure in 2006. He attempted to run for the Democratic nomination for Attorney General of Maryland, but was disqualified for not having 10 years of legal experience in Maryland (he was admitted to the Maryland bar in 2001).[1] Perez was appointed by Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley to serve as Secretary of the Maryland Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation in January 2007, until his October 2009 confirmation by the United States Senate as Assistant Attorney General.

After a classic Republican and neoliberal education and law and order background, Special Counselor for Senator Ted Kennedy seems to come out of left field, no pun intended. Why did Ted Kennedy need a Special Counselor in 1998? Was it related to the impeachment of Clinton, in which Kennedy seems to have been very involved?1. Tom went from working for Janet Reno as a Deputy Assistant AG, to working briefly as Special Counselor to Ted Kennedy around impeachment time, to being Director of the Office for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services? Intriguing, but wiki was no help and neither was Mr. Google.

The language that I bolded in the above excerpt from Tom's wiki really made me squint, though. Wha? After a fantastic education, from kindergarten through graduation from Harvard Law School, with honors and graduation from the Kennedy School of Government, plus time on the County Council in Maryland, Tom didn't know enough to check legal requirements before beginning a run for public office as--wait for it--Maryland Attorney General? Or did he know enough to look up the legal requirements, but tried to run, knowing he did not meet them and hoping no one would notice? I don't see a third option, do you?

BTW, Mitt Romney ran for Governor after his time in Utah "saving the Olympics" cost him the Massachusetts residency requirement he need to run for Governor. Long story, but it's clear from Mitt's trying to fudge his Utah state tax return that Mitt knew he wasn't going to qualify to run when he wanted to run. Luckily for Mitt, Massachusetts Democrats gave him a pass. (Wasn't that nice of them?) In any event Perez wasn't that lucky. Whether it was, given his background, inexcusably dumb or just sleazy, Tom got caught and no one gave him a pass.

That's where I stopped reading. I hope Part 2 will tell you and me more interesting things about Tom.
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1 "Kennedy was a stalwart backer of President Clinton during the 1998 Lewinsky scandal, often trying to cheer up the president when he was gloomiest and getting him to add past Kennedy staffer Greg Craig to his defense team, which helped improve the president's fortunes." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Kennedy

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I will repeat what I said before on an earlier thread.
He has never won an election (except for County Council)--would that have been an election or appointment or pretend election?--. Never been in a state legislature, congress, never been a mayor or governor. How is he qualified to get Democrats elected?

Has this guy ever, ever, ever punched a time clock? OK, maybe there were some work study jobs in college, arranged by Someone, but no regular working stiff job where you have to live on what you earn and you can be fired. What in this fancy-pants resume qualified him to be secretary of labor?

What this appointment, which is what I consider it to be, the fix was clearly in, tells me is that the Dead Rats still think they don't need working people.

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Mary Bennett

@Nastarana

I have not gone beyond what I posted. Yet, I have already found several things that I don't like very much.

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Alligator Ed's picture

@HenryAWallace First, from your excellent scholarship, we sniff see that Señor Perez might not be a legal citizen unless his father was naturalized prior to his birth. Later he distinguished himself (?) as Labor Secretary, helping Obummer craft TPP. For this alone, American Labor should be quite glad. Next, being a super delegate to the DNC (Democrats Never Change), he learned party-crushing from Dubious Whatshername Schultz plus straight-faced lying from Donna Brazile-nut. He is now in a perfect place to unify the DemonRATic party. We noticed his recent inclusiveness gesture when he failed to invite Keith Ellison, elected co-chair of DNC to their first official reception. Oh, Keith, sorry about that.
Shok

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@Alligator Ed @Alligator Ed

... Señor Perez might not be a legal citizen unless his father was naturalized prior to his birth ...

That one I would love to see detained and deported! Oh, please let the just gods of comedy be watching this and giggling with anticipation!

Edit: I thought, going by context, that it must mean 'Damn Nefarious Criminals'... and I know it fits as a descriptive term/apparent requirement... am I mistaken, or is there more than one meaning, since they actually go together so nicely?

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

Alligator Ed's picture

@Ellen North

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@Alligator Ed

While I relied mostly on Don't call me fTom's wiki, I like to think I am doing a decent job of reading between the lines. Tom's wiki, which as the essay says, was likely scrubbed and scrubbed before I ever saw it, still raises questions. And that is a red flag (as in danger, not as in Republican, Russian or Communist).

As far as the citizenship issue, as I once posted here, I have mixed feelings about the undocumented immigrant issue. On the one hand, I grew up hearing stories about how difficult it was to get my ancestors here (legally), when immigration laws were very restrictive. So, one part of me knee jerks that people should get here legally, as my family did. On the other hand, I am not not a nationalist; and I see national borders causing many dark things. However, I think all my feelings are beside the point with respect to Papa Perez: Anyone who enlisted to fight in World War II, which may be the only justifiable war I know of, more than earned his right to citizenship.

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@Alligator Ed

would be the face of the DNC?

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nSKkwzwdW4 width:350 height:350]

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