Tuesday, September 20, 2005

MICHELLE MALKIN opposes the nomination of Julie Myers for the top spot at the U.S. Immigration Enforcement and Customs Agency, which is part of the Department of Homeland Security. She is joined by a number of other conservative bloggers, who are not happy about Pres. Bush's choice of someone whose background and experience clearly do not qualify her to hold this position. She was a federal prosecutor in Brooklyn for two years, and has held various cabinet posts, but has never been responsible for managing a bureaucracy the size of ICE.

What Myers does have is connections. Air Force Gen. Richard B. Myers, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is her uncle. Michael Chertoff's chief of staff, John F. Wood, is her husband. And she worked for Pres. Bush, as a special assistant for personnel issues.

The WaPo notes that the experts aren't enthusiastic about Myers, either.

Many immigration advocates, ICE employee representatives and homeland security experts said they were troubled by the nomination of Myers to take over an agency with so many problems.

"It appears she's got a tremendous amount of experience in money laundering, in banking and the financial areas," said Charles Showalter, president of the National Homeland Security Council, a union that represents 7,800 ICE agents, officers and support staff. "My question is: Who the hell is going to enforce the immigration laws?"

On the other hand, liberal blogger Laura Rozen thinks Julie Myers actually counts as highly qualified by Bush standards.

Yes, it's true, Julie Myers is the niece of the departing chairman of the joint chiefs of staff Richard Myers and is the new wife of the chief of staff to the stumbling DHS secretary Michael Chertoff, but she was also a chief of staff to Chertoff herself, worked as a federal prosecutor in New York, and "for two years...held a variety of jobs at the White House and at the Departments of Commerce, Justice and Treasury." Sad to say, but by the standards of the Bush administration, this is what counts as a professional appointment.

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