PRESIDENT Bush has seldom tried to hide his disdain for government regulation, and his latest choice for the Consumer Product Safety Commission proves the point.
The nominee, Michael E. Baroody, executive vice president of the National Association of Manufacturers, so closely fits the stereotype of a fox sent to guard the regulatory henhouse that it won't be surprising if he shows up for his Senate confirmation hearing with a mouth full of feathers.
Not that the White House would care.
The agency is supposed to be the public's watchdog against harmful consumer goods, but the administration has allowed the five-member panel to languish with only two commissioners since last July. It needs at least three members to legally carry out its duties.
The Baroody nomination is, in fact, such an in-your-face challenge to the Senate that it is unclear whether the President is even serious about restoring the agency's power to take action.
If majority Democrats reject Mr. Baroody, the commission won't be able to do its job, which is really what the White House would prefer. If he's confirmed, the panel would tilt against consumer interests.Mr. Baroody has no credentials to indicate he would act as anything other than a business shill. Indeed, he is a long-time Republican functionary who started out in Washington as a speechwriter for GOP senators, including Bob Dole, during the Nixon administration.
As an assistant secretary in the Labor Department in 1988, he defended the Reagan administration's attempts to weaken worker-safety rules, according to the Los Angeles Times. Shifting over to the manufacturers' group, he fought ergonomics rules intended to protect workers and railed against smog and soot regulations promulgated by the Environmental Protection Agency.
With such a background, it is doubtful whether Americans would be better off with Mr. Baroody on the product-safety commission, even if his confirmation would finally put the panel back in business.
The nomination is simply one more example of the contempt the Bush Administration holds for the legitimate process of protecting the public from defective products in the consumer marketplace.
The Senate is under no obligation to confirm Mr. Baroody just because he's nominated.
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