Alexander Counters Block on Appointment of Bishop Graves to TVA Board
by Jackson BakerArticle Tools
- Bishop Graves
Vexed at Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's continuing disinclination to allow Senate confirmation of President Bush's re-appointment of Bishop William Graves of Memphis to the Tennessee Valley Authority's nine-member board, Republican caucus chairman Lamar Alexander has countered with his own hold on a nominee favored by Reid..
However, Alexander denied a claim by the majority leader that he was holding up action on an entire series of presidential nominees, including that of Steve Preston as secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
The Tennessee senator told the Flyer in a telephone interview Friday morning that in response to inaction on Graves and one other TVA nominee he will use his own authority to block the confirmation of Ikram Kahn as an appointee to the United States Institute for Peace, a non-partisan body established and funded by Congress. Dr. Kahn is backed by Reid.
"I've run out of patience with the Democratic leader. I've had conversations with him on the floor and off, talked to him on the phone, and tried to be reasonable, but he's ignored what I've had to say," Alexander said. The Tennessee senator contended that Reid is bucking a 75-year tradition whereby presidents have had a free hand in the matter of TVA board appointments.
"He [Reid] wants to make the appointments himself," contended Alexander, who said Reid's action was further unwarranted because Graves, bishop of the First District of the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, was "a self-described Democrat who votes independent." Bishop Graves was the first African American to serve on the TVA board when he was appointed in 2006 to complete a term which expired in May 2007.
The Nevada senator has indicated he wants adequate Democratic representation on the board and is apparently put off by the fact that Graves has endorsed and supported various Republicans in the past, including Alexander. Also being blocked by Reid is another TVA appointee, Susan Williams of Knoxville.
The hold-up in the two TVA appointments is part of a general stalemate in Senate confirmation of presidential nominees, although the two sides have different versions of where the holdup lies. Alexander insists that he is blocking one nominee and one only - Dr. Kahn - but a spokesman for Senator Reid contends that Alexander has scuttled a more far-reaching agreement that was reached between the White House and the Majority Leader's office only this week.
"He's being disingenuous. He's left 80 nominees twisting in the wind, including a nominee for secretary of HUD," said Jim Manley, a spokesman for Senator Reid. Manley said further that the background of the impasse over the Graves and Williams appointments was an "eleventh-hour" move two years ago by then Tennessee senator Bill Frist to strip the TVA Board of Democrats.
In his effort to unblock the nomination of Bishop Graves,
Senator Alexander has had support from 9th District Democratic
congressman Steve Cohen of Memphis, who has independently written Senator Reid
urging favorable action on the appointment.
With each side blaming the other for blocking important nominations at a time of
crucial need, no further action on the various appointments at stake in the
impasse can take place until Congress returns from a one-week recess which began
Friday.
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The good ‘Fessor is a green eye-shade behind the much greater and TVA-killing problem of the huge security lapses in TVA’s computer control systems. Read the GAO report at http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d08526.pdf It looks like TVA management will be the victim of its own policies. Seeking a more “centralized and streamlined” organization with accountability, TVA’s new management has had three years to figure out what is going on at the TVA and to fix the problems. Unfortunately, they have failed in both counts. That is why I have called for the resignation of TVA’s President and CEO, Tom Kilgore, and the six remaining directors. This management mistake is far more serious that it’s past management bungling, even of wasting billions of dollars. The security lapses are so serious that the Southeastern region could be vulnerable to cyber attacks that could then by ripple effect shut down much of the other grids in the country. Immediately, the Department of Energy should take control of the TVA and in the interim proceed to develop a plan for the dissolution of the TVA, a plan that would decentralize all of its power capabilities. TVA immediately must open up its 17,000 miles of exclusive transmission lines to permit the free flow of electricity into and out of its grid because of the present vulnerability. New entry ports may be necessary. TVA management has shown the improbability of securing the unwieldy 80,000 square mile territory from cyber attack. For further discussion of this matter and other comments about the TVA, see http://norsworthyopinion.com Ernest Norsworthy Visalia, California emnorsworthy@earthlink.net
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