Bush cabinet an unwelcome Christmas gift

Welcome back! I bet you thought Christmas was over, that Hanukkah was kaput and Kwanzaa finally finished. Oh no, my friends. I said I wanted a president for Christmas, and George W. Bush is the gift that keeps on giving. And giving.\nVoluntary compliance\nThis is just one of the many Christmas gifts Dubya and his compadres have quietly left under the American tree.\n It's a policy adored by Christine Todd Whitman and Gale Norton, who have been designated to head the Environmental Protection Agency and the Interior Department respectively. It's also adored by large corporations because it refers to the philosophy of corporate self-policing in environmental matters.\n That means big business should comply with clean air and water standards without having to worry about pesky fines, regulations and inspectors. After all, isn't it in the best interest of businesses to be good stewards of the environment?\n One would think. \n That is, unless one comes from Inez, Ky., home to one of last year's worst environmental disasters.\n A coal company there was, by all accounts, controlled by reasonable human beings. Its parent company was also not run by devil-may-care lunatics. At least, that's what everybody thought.\n But in 1997, federal investigators warned the company that it had an impending disaster on its hands. Apparently, that warning wasn't worth listening to.\n Last fall, a roof on a containment well collapsed, water rushed into the slurry holding and millions of gallons of the poisonous material burst forth into the Tug Fork and Big Sandy rivers.\n Not even a smaller scale version of this disaster at the same facility in 1994 convinced A.T. Massey to fix its containment wells. But don't worry, they'll be policing themselves soon enough.\n Merry Christmas, West Virginia and Kentucky.\nJohn D. Ashcroft\n Another stocking stuffer is Bush's attorney general pick, former Missouri Sen. John Ashcroft. This is the man who was defeated by his deceased opponent.\n Anyway, Ashcroft is alive and kicking and has an incendiary record to prove it. Although Democrats have fumed most about Ashcroft's stark pro-life beliefs (although he'll be in charge of enforcing many abortion laws, the man doesn't even believe in abortion for victims of rape and incest), he provides something for everyone to hate.\n On the civil rights front, Ashcroft was quoted in The Southern Partisan as defending Confederate heroes such as Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee. Only a year and a half ago, Ashcroft accepted an honorary degree from Bob Jones University, the same college that wouldn't allow interracial dating.\n Then there's Ashcroft's resistance to rehabilitation for drug criminals. Although several states recently passed initiatives funneling money away from criminalizing drug offenders, and toward drug treatment, Ashcroft hasn't changed his mind on the issue. He argues that spending money on drug treatment amounts to coddling the "the lowest and the least" of society.\n And how does Ashcroft feel about working with people who don't agree with him (and there are many)? Frank Rich of The New York Times quotes a speech in which Ashcroft reviles Republicans "who preach pragmatism, who champion conciliation, who counsel compromise."\n Happy Kwanzaa, everybody.\nAn oxymoronic pick\n This is the best one of all. Bush's nominee for Secretary of Labor, Linda Chavez, is wildly opposed to affirmative action, doesn't believe in the minimum wage and called women who report sexual harassment "cry-babies." Chavez also doesn't believe in the glass ceiling that "supposedly" keeps women out of top-level executive jobs.\n The problem is Chavez is in charge of enforcing equal employment laws, the minimum wage and laws that make sexual harassment a crime.\n A Hispanic woman, she is opposed by women's groups, Hispanic groups and organized labor. Yes, labor opposes Bush's nomination for Secretary of Labor. You could argue that they're getting what they deserve for supporting Bush's opponent, but I thought that President Dubya was going to bring a new era of bipartisanship to Washington.\n Feliz Navidad, my friends.