Electing An Executive Branch

Publius gets this right. Responding to Giuliani's promise to appoint judges exactly as Bush has, he says, "it doesn’t really matter what Giuliani thinks personally about abortion. If his executive branch nominates judges that are anti-abortion, or delegates that process to the Federalist Society and OLC, then he is for all practical purposes anti-abortion." Indeed, the larger issue here "is that it’s important to resist viewing presidential elections (particularly general elections) as personality contests. It’s important of course to consider an individual’s judgment prior to handing over the keys to the military. But voters should also remember that they’re selecting not just an individual, but an executive branch."

That's exactly right. You're not just electing George w. Bush or Rudy Giuliani, you're electing all the judges they'll appoint, all the executive orders they'll issue, all the members of the National Labor Relations Board they'll choose, all the regulators they'll hire, all the interest groups they'll need to placate with executive branch patronage. On these issue, it's almost impossible to imagine Giuliani will be a moderate. The forces pushing him are simply not moderate forces. He may fight some personal battles on the big issues, but he's going to keep his troops happy when staffing the NLRB, or the EPA.

And here, via Chris Hayes, is what such decisions have wrought. Steven Law is Bush's Deputy Secretary of Labor, and in that capacity, recently gave a speech to the National Association of Wholesale-Distributors, where he was questioned on a recent card check drive run by the Teamsters. "You have no choice but to retaliate," he said. Some language. Of course, that's what you get from a Dept. of Labor official whose previous experience was "[directing] political strategy, media advertising, and fundraising development for the National Republican Senatorial Committee — where he erased a huge inherited debt, set new fundraising records, and helped win several highly competitive Senate races." That's the sort of patronage you want to avoid, and it's the sort that most any Republican, no matter how chummy their Meet the Press persona is, will engage in.