August 14, 2003 Mother Jones

Congress has been out on recess for little more than a week, and

already, Bush has been sneaking in and pushing his agenda through on

the sly. This time, the leader of our democracy is sidestepping

Congress to put a friend of his with a reputation as an anti-Muslim

and an extremist, Daniel Pipes, into the US Institute of Peace -- a

federally funded think tank dedicated to promoting peace.

Christopher Hitchens, writing for Slate, slams Pipes as "dangerous

and unreliable." Hitchens points out Pipes' blatantly racist comments

towards Palestinians, and cites Commentary magazine's February 2003

issue in which Pipes attacked road map proposals and used the

words "the so-called Palestinian refugees" and what Hitchens calls

other "crude tricks of language" to imply there had been no

Palestinian disposession.

Mother Jones' Michael Scherer notes that Pipes sees no need for

diplomacy, compromise, or even negotation:

"Like many other Middle East scholars, Daniel Pipes sees a way to end

the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But unlike most of his peers, Pipes

sees no room for negotiation, no hope for compromise and no use for

diplomacy. 'What war had achieved for Israel,' Pipes explained at a

recent Zionist conference in Washington DC, 'diplomacy has undone.'

His solution is simple: The Israeli military must force what Pipes

describes as a 'change of heart' by the Palestinians in the West Bank

and Gaza -- a sapping of the Palestinian will to fight which will

lead to a complete surrender. 'How is a change of heart achieved? It

is achieved by an Israeli victory and a Palestinian defeat,' Pipes

continued. 'The Palestinians need to be defeated even more than

Israel needs to defeat them.'"

Scherer notes that Pipes' extreme views put him at odds with the Bush

administration and its stated policies towards the Israeli-

Palestinian conflict -- i.e. the "road mad" for peace. As a result,

Bush's nomination of Pipes to a peace-promoting thinktank took many

by surprise.

Lawmakers, however, weren't going to let Pipes slide quietly into his

seat. After Bush nominated Pipes to the board of directors in April,

several senators managed to stall the vote at the Senate's Health,

Education, Labor, and Pension Committee in late July.

But their triumph was short lived. According to Reuters, Bush is

expected to bypass Pipes' Senate confirmation through a technique

called a recess appointment. The technique, though questionable, is

constitutional and has long been used by Presidents to appoint

nominees sans Senate confirmation. According to Slate's Michael Brus,

Clinton used a recess appointment to designate James Hormel, an

openly homosexual man who was none too popular with the conservative

right, as ambassador to Luxembourg. Even President John F. Kennedy

used it to appoint Thurgood Marshall to the bench during a

Congressional recess because he thought that Southern senators might

block Marshall's nomination. Presidents have also been known to use

recess appointments to delay a congressional vote until after

elections when the nominee faces a friendlier Congress.

So what does this mean for Pipes? It means that Pipes' recess

appointment will be valid until the next Congress is sworn in --

which could be as late as 2005.

Lawmakers along with Muslim, Arab, and liberal Jewish groups are

lambasting Bush's scheme and his nominee. According to the AP Senator

Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts thinks the Bush administration can do

better:

"'I continue to believe that Dr. Pipes is not the right person for

this position,' said Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., in a statement

issued Tuesday. 'His record and experience do not reflect a

commitment to bridging differences and preventing conflict. Surely

the administration can find someone better to serve on the Board of

the United States Institute of Peace.'"

In a press release by the Council on American-Islamic Relations, one

expert argues that Bush's move is offensive to advocates of peace and

undermines democracy:

"'This back-door move by the president is a defeat for democracy and

an affront to all those who seek peace,' said CAIR Communications

Director Ibrahim Hooper. 'Pipes' appointment calls into question all

of President Bush's previous statements claiming that the war on

terrorism is not an attack on Islam and shows total distain for the

democratic process.'"