Wherein I do Tom Perez Part 2

Part 1 (http://caucus99percent.com/content/wherein-i-do-tom-perez-part-1) included this information about Tom "Don't Call Me Tom" Perez:

Born in Buffalo, New York, Perez is a graduate of Brown University, Harvard Law School and the John F. Kennedy School of Government. He 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 to 1995, 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.

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Perez)

The top three positions at Department of Justice are Attorney General of the United States, then Assistant AG, then Associate AG. Directly below the Associate AG are the Deputy Assistant Attorneys General. While the DOJ employs many attorneys in Washington, D.C. and its offices all around the country, currently, only five slots for Deputy Assistant Attorney General exist. Because all Deputy Assistant Attorneys General are of equal rank, the position is the fourth highest position within the Department of Justice. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Department_of_Justice; https://www.justice.gov/atr/deputy-assistant-attorneys-general-0) Attaining such an important position within six or fewer years after beginning with the DOJ and seven or fewer years out of law school seems noteworthy. Was Tom really that good?

As Deputy Assistant AG, Tom headed the Civil Rights Division. While the term "civil rights" came to be associated the struggle of minority groups, for equal protection of the law under the Fourteenth Amendment, the original distinction is the one between civil law and criminal law, which long predated the Constitution of the United States. In the USA, a federal civil right would be any right granted an individual (as opposed to government) by the Constitution of the United States and federal statutes, including due process. I repeat: including due process. (http://www.diffen.com/difference/Civil_Law_vs_Criminal_Law; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civ8.il_and_political_rights)

To start, the Reagan administration had been the most scandalous administration in US history, if the number of administration officials investigated, indicted or convicted is any indication. Iran Contra, the savings and loan crisis and others plagued the Reagan Administration, including the Inslaw Affair, which involved the Department of Justice and which three of the Attorneys General Reagan nominated refused to investigate. (Why did Democrats not demand an independent investigation?) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reagan_administration_scandals None of this stopped Tom from signing up to work in the Executive Branch of Reagan's former Vice President?

Ruby Ridge. The Weaver family had dropped out of society for religious reasons. This eleven-day siege of the Weaver family and a friend, Randy Travis, occurred during the last full year of the Reagan administration. Precipitating the siege was the failure of the patriarch of the family to appear in court over sale of two illegal shotguns. By the time the siege ended, a U.S. Marshall, the Weaver's fourteen-year old son, Sammy and his mother, Vicki and the family dog were dead and Kevin Harris and Sammy's father were wounded. The Rules of Engagement included killing any adult male seen near the Weaver's cabin.

After the incident, the DOJ formed the Ruby Ridge Task Force, which found wrongdoing, including Constitutional violations. Harris and the Weavers won every court case case brought by them or federal officials. One of the federal agents pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice. The sharpshooter was charged with manslaughter, but charges were later dropped. (I recently saw a TV program about this. Sara Weaver said that she felt they were being "hunted.") The whole story is beyond horrifying. Of course, the DOJ heads all federal law enforcement agencies, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Bureau of Alcohol, Firearms, Tobacco and Explosives, often referred to as the ATF.(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruby_Ridge; https://www.justice.gov/agencies)

Other Bush 41 scandals.
Also in 1992, Bush's Secretary of the Treasury copped a plea (tax evasion and obstruction of justice), becoming the first holder of that office to go to prison and Bush granted clemency to those involved in the Iran Contra Affair. None of this discouraged Perez from remaining part of the DOJ through the Clinton administration. (More Bush scandals at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:George_H._W._Bush_administration_...)

Remember reading about the Clintons quasi-comical search for an AG? After first two women considered lost out to Nannygate, Bubba put up Janet Reno to be the country's first woman Attorney General. Supposedly, Reno was Hillary's choice. Please, please, pretty please with sugar on top, check out Reno's career before Hillary and Bubba gave her the nod for the position of the federal government's top attorney. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janet_Reno

Waco. Federal agents kept David Koresh and his followers under seige for eighty-one days while torturing them with, among other things, blaring These Boots Were Made for Walking, which contains references to fire, firing on them and gassing them. Eventually, those who did not escape died in a fire, including Koresh. The government claimed Koresh and his followers had set fire to their own compound. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco_siege) Eight-six died, four ATF agents and eighty-two followers of Koresh (six on February 29 and seventy-six in the fire on April 19) and sixteen ATF agents were wounded. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco_siege

Elian Gonzalez. The INS placed six year-old boy whose mother had drowned in an attempt to get from Cuba to the US with relatives of the mother in Miami, which happens to be Reno's home town. At about 5 a.m. the day before Easter Sunday, feds raided the home and seized the boy to return him to his father. While the return to the father is understandable, the method was widely criticized, especially because the boy was already traumatized. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eli%C3%A1n_Gonz%C3%A1lez;

Richard Jewell. The government leaked false information about Jewell, a policeman and security guard, whose only "crime" was reporting a suspicious backpack at Atlanta's Olympic Park to the police. Jewell filed a number of lawsuits to try to clear his name. He died at age 44 of severe heart disease, kidney disease and diabetes. ehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Jewell

Did I mention Tom headed the division of the DOJ in charge of making sure no one violated due process rights?

Janet Reno. In 1998, the same year of Tom's mysterious stint as Special Counselor to Ted Kennedy, Janet Reno, then the nation's chief law enforcement officer, after only the President of the United States, was cited for contempt for refusing to comply with a subpoena issued in connection with impeachment of said President for lying under oath to a grand jury and obstructing justice! (http://www.cbsnews.com/news/reno-cited-for-contempt/; http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/president-clinton-impeached)

There's more, but you get the picture. There were achievements, too, including capture and conviction of the 1993 WTC culprits. And, Reno did receive some awards after leaving the D of J. Still, I don't think that I could have been part of those horror shows and said to myself, "After my mysterious stint with Ted Kennedy, who is currently defending Bubba to media and the public, I will return to Bill Clinton's administration to head my own division; and, years later, I will suggest that Hillary change the narrative from the FBI investigating her to something negative about Senator Sanders and minorities." I would not, but Tom sure did! And this made him a good person to replace Disgraceful Debbie and Discredited Donna while Sanders attempts to reform the Democratic Party from within, why, exactly? Bueller? Bueller? Biden? Bueller? Anyone? Anyone? (http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2017/02/wikileaks-tom-perez-helped-rig-p...)

Tom seems to have done good work in Maryland for Governor Martin O'Malley. (Part I mentioned the mess made when he attempted to run for Attorney General of Maryland, although he did not meet the requirements for the position set out in the state's constitution, really surprising for someone who is an apparent legal star.) In 2009, President Obama returned him to the D of J, where he seems to have done some good things and some questionable things, including as to the voting rights act. (I would say more, except I am not sure I understand all of it, or could, even if I looked a lot further). In March, 2013, Obama nominated him to be Secretary of Labor. His Senate confirmation vote was the first vote on a cabinet position to be strictly along party lines. Courts decided more than once that he overstepped his authority. He remained Secretary of Labor until the end of the Obama administration in January, 2017.

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It is really a frightening story to read. I really want to help those people but I am not in a situation to do it. I hope our laws and rules can protect them.

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@DinaHaines

of this particular essay, so I can't reply substantively. I apologize for that, especially since it's your first post here. (Welcome.)

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Alligator Ed's picture

He just happens to be around when bad things happen. What a coinkydink!

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@Alligator Ed

Tom's specific duty at the DOJ was protecting the civil rights of individuals, including the right to due process. Yet, the very Department in which he worked was violating the civil rights of Jewell and the people at Ruby Ridge and Waco. So, what did he do about all that? What did he do about the contempt for a subpoena of Reno, head of the Department of Justice, to protect someone all America witnessed lying under oath and obstructing justice? Not to mention, much as I appreciate Ted Kennedy, the deal with TK during Clinton's impeachment seems very peculiar, to say the least.

Plus, as I said, it's difficult for me to imagine living through all that and coming out of it wanting to involve myself with that kind of awfulness for the rest of my career, much less stab people in the back to benefit the Clintons. What kind of person is that?

BTW, the email from Tom that is reproduced at the Gateway Pundit contains another puzzling error, though nowhere near as huge an error as trying to run for AG of Maryland without meeting the state Constitutional requirement. http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2017/02/wikileaks-tom-perez-helped-rig-p...

Tom's email says that he realizes that Texas (which has many delegates) is the"mother load." However, the expression is "mother lode." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother_lode "Mother load" makes no sense.

FWIW, Tom was also wrong about Massachusetts. Massachusetts, especially its Hispanic population, which was apparently so important to the Clintons that Bubba showed up in Massachusetts on Super Tuesday to violate laws against electioneering at the polls in three locations randomly socialize with poll workers and people standing on line to vote in purely nonpartisan way. These locations included Boston, where minorities of all kinds abound, and a historic Portuguese fishing village that attacts Hispanics of all kinds.

One person's outreach is another's cynical, self-serving and possibly illegal manipulation of minority groups.

Even with all the Clinton/Democratic crookedness, Hillary got only one delegate in Massachusetts more than Sanders did. (On Super Tuesday in 2008, she beat Obama in Massachusetts by more delegates than that.)

As yet another Democrat who owes the Clintons big time, Tom seems like the perfect person to succeed Disgraceful Debbie and Discredited Donna, if your definition of a perfect person to succeed them includes being as corrupt and will to backstab on behalf of the Clintons backstabbing as are Deb and Donna.

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Alligator Ed's picture

@HenryAWallace choice: he does nothing. After all, isn't that what the Dumbocratic party has been doing for the last 10+ years? Nothing. That's why Dubious Debbie (or Deplorable Debbie, take your pick) has been so good at overseeing the demise of the Disinterested-in-us Party.

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@Alligator Ed

Wars
Torture
Serial drone murders
Trade agreement after trade agreement
Putting Medicare and Social Security on the table
Bs ing us to a fare thee well

And the list goes on.

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I begin to believe you might be guilty of committing (real) journalism. Please keep it up. We need to know a lot more about who these functionaries are, where they come from, what are their loyalties.

It would appear from your reports that Mr. Perez has been able to recommend himself to various patrons as a useful tool.

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Mary Bennett

@Nastarana

Seems clear to me that Tom is well-connected in general and, in particular, was chosen for DNC head purposefully.

Not that I think Ellison would have been much different. (That the DNC allowed, perhaps even encouraged, three token Democrats in Congress to endorse Sanders doesn't impress me much.)

The ones who really bucked the DNC in the primary were Democrats in New Hampshire, one of whom, Buckley, did try to run for DNC head, but, of course, did not have a prayer in Hell. He actually had the nerve to tell Democrats to grow up and focus on the well being of Americans instead of on Trump's insults. I mean, what could be more disqualifying for DNC head than calling out the current agenda of the DNCbots? /sarcasm

I love, too, how Tom's first move is appointing Ellison his deputy and announcing that Ellison will be the face of the DNC. However, when it's time for a face of the DNC to make the rounds of the talk shows, the only face facing the camera is that of Perez--and Perez "forgets" to invite Ellison to the first reception. If I had more faith in Ellison than I do in the rest of them, I'd be more upset. As it is, I merely note the blatant dishonesty and cynicism on the part of Tom.

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