Linda Chavez' Tangled Web
Inconsistencies Between Her Testimony and That of Others Dooms Her Nomination
by Tamara Baker
Monday, Jan. 8, 2001 -- SAINT PAUL, MINNESOTA -- Watching ABC News Sunday evening was fascinating.
Item One was, of course, the story of Linda Chavez, former Texas Governor and White House Usurper George W. Bush's pick for Labor Secretary. It seems that Ms. Chavez, known for her hostility to organized labor, feminism and the minimum wage, broke the law by harboring a known illegal alien in her house, apparently in exchange for domestic servitude (http://abcnews.go.com/sections/politics/DailyNews/chavez010107.html).
Republicans such as George (Triumph of the) Will immediately leapt to her defense on the morning gabfests, calling the revelations about Ms. Chavez 'character assassination' -- a phrase that must have been part of the GOP's hurriedly-assembled "talking points" blast-fax on this issue, considering that another conservative pundit, one working for a GOP think tank, also used that phrase on Sunday's ABC evening newscast. Tucker Eskew tried to spin the whole mess as a non-issue, but George Stephanoupoulos, who seems to have belatedly remembered that he is a Democrat, pointed out on ABC News Sunday evening that if it could be proved that Chavez was lying about any aspect of the affair, then her nomination was dead.
Well -- guess what?
1) According to ABC News, both on TV and on the web site link shown above, Ms. Chavez claimed that she had 'suspected', but did not know for certain, that her Guatemalan guest was in fact an illegal alien -- but the lady herself, in interviews with the FBI and with ABC News, said that she herself told Chavez she was in the U.S. illegally!
Remember Rusty Limbaugh saying, back in 1993 during the GOP's attacks on Zoe Baird and Kimba Wood, that no one should even be considered for Attorney General who has violated the law herself?
How about someone who knowingly and willfully violated labor laws as Secretary of Labor?
2) Chavez told investigators that she didn't make the Guatemalan lady do housework on a regular basis. According to ABC's Sunday evening newscast, the lady herself said she did so at least twice a week.
Further discrepancies exist in such things as whether or not the illegal alien was paid, and for how much. These discrepancies are serious enough to keep Chavez in the FBI's hot seat for the next few days. At the end of this grilling period, Ms. Chavez may well consider herself lucky if she escapes a jail term for having broken the very laws she was appointed to uphold. She most certainly will not be getting a Cabinet position, now or ever.
Expect to see more of this sort of thing in the next few weeks and months. The problem Smirk's minders face is that not only are they themselves irredeemably corrupt, but so are their donors, patrons and go-fers. When Cheney and Hughes keep attempting to reward their buddies with Cabinet positions, we will keep seeing these little plays re-enact themselves over and over again.
