You just can't make this stuff up
A co-worker of mine mentioned the other day hearing that fiction is harder to write than fact, because fiction has to at least seem real. The following story made me thing of it:
On the eve of an important Senate committee meeting to consider the legislation, Nancy A. Nord, the acting chairman of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, has asked lawmakers in two letters not to approve the bulk of legislation that would increase the agency’s authority, double its budget and sharply increase its dwindling staff.
. . .
Ms. Nord, who before joining the agency had been a lawyer at Eastman Kodak and an official at the United States Chamber of Commerce, criticized the measure in letters sent late last week and this afternoon to the Democratic leaders of the committee. . . .
She opposed making it easier to bring criminal prosecutions of companies that knowingly sell defective products and also criticized a measure that would make it easier for the commission to publicly disclose reports of faulty products.
While manufacturers had agreed on another provision that would give independent company laboratories the authority to test products and certify their safety, Ms. Nord said she objected to the provision and preferred that the legislation give the commission the authority to defer to the work of the laboratories, should it choose to.
Some of Ms. Nord’s complaints were similar to the ones that business groups and manufacturers have raised, including that the legislation would be unnecessarily burdensome. But in other areas, such as whistleblower protection for company employees, her complaints went beyond those of industry.
It would be one thing if she was playing toady to industry. One kind of expects such things from political appointees. But to oppose measures even the industry thinks are good ideas? That's ideology run amok.
Apparently, she isn't actually being directed by the White House who appointed her. There isn't any need since they believe in the same thing, which apparently doesn't include the safety of consumers. It might seem an odd choice for the head of a consumer safety commission until you remember this is the Bush administration. These are the same people who just appointed somebody to be in charge of U.S. contraception programs. who is opposed to contraception. Putting people in charge of agencies whose efforts they are diametrically opposed to is what this administration does. The rest of us be damned.
