When I read last week about the withdrawal by Sarah Bloom Raskin of her nomination to the Federal Reserve Board in the face of fierce opposition from Republicans and Senator Joe Manchin (D, W. Va.) due to her views about climate control and global warming, I was deeply disappointed.
She was sacrificed on the altar of the fossil fuel industry and political expediency. Her withdrawal was necessary to enable the Senate Banking Committee to vote on and approve three other nominations to the Federal Reserve Board at a time of economic turmoil caused by raging inflation.
Treatment of Sarah Bloom Raskin, an exceedingly competent attorney and public servant, is the Washington Way. Both Democrats and Republicans have torpedoed presidential nominations over the years, destroying reputations and demonstrating for everyone to see the fractious and vicious environment peculiar to our nation’s Capital.
What did Bloom Raskin do to inspire such adamantly ugly controversy? She evoked common sense, a rare commodity sometimes in the political realm by advocating that the Federal Reserve monitor the impact of decisions by banks concerning climate change and global warming.
In other words, Raskin, a former Fed board member, deputy secretary of Treasury and chief financial regulator in Maryland, opined that financial institutions consider the effect of climate change in evaluating the risks of loans and investments.
She might as well have waved a red flag in the faces of the fossil fuel industry and the West Virginia senator beholden to the deep-seated coal interests in his state. Manchin, the Democratic spoiler in the U.S. Senate, which is split 50-50 between the two parties, seems oblivious to coal-produced pollution and health concerns.
Manchin and others know that Bloom Raskin is a rational person whose regulatory behavior is not radical. It mattered not in this instance. She was fair game for personal assassination.
Good people have fallen victim to political crosswinds in a city preoccupied with power, re-election and a zero-sum game. This time around, I believe that satisfaction of a powerful lobby outweighed consideration of a top-flight nominee.
While I am railing about the ways and means of political combat, I must change gears a notch to focus on Maryland’s First Congressional District and its Rep. Andy Harris. He and 15 other conservative members of the House of Representatives voted against a widely approved proposal to recognize the inhumane internment of 120,000 Japanese-Americans during World War II through a history network administered by the National Park Service.
The dastardly decision by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor to call for this onerous action stained a country fighting to rid the world of Adolf Hitler–who raised racism to a new level of horror and disgust. Internment camps on American soil represented senseless bigotry perpetuated by government leaders determined to punish good people guilty of sharing the same ethnic heritage of Japan, our American enemy.
We did not imprison Americans of German lineage during World War II. Nor should we have considered doing so.
Harris opined that other weightier matters deserved congressional attention. On one hand, he is right. On the other hand, programs that instruct without offending the public offer a necessary message: avoid cruel treatment of fellow Americans and do not allow current events, such as Covid, tied by some to China, to justify verbal and physical attacks on Chinese Americans.
The Federal Reserve Board, criticized of late for its tardy response to inflation, has lost the services of a first-rate public servant. Congressman Harris again has exhibited his shameful disregard of decency and fairness.
The Washington swamp continues to emit repugnant odors. Nothing new.
Columnist Howard Freedlander retired in 2011 as Deputy State Treasurer of the State of Maryland. Previously, he was the executive officer of the Maryland National Guard. He also served as community editor for Chesapeake Publishing, lastly at the Queen Anne’s Record-Observer. In retirement, Howard serves on the boards of several non-profits on the Eastern Shore, Annapolis and Philadelphia.
Paula Reeder says
There’s no question that Mr. Harris contributes mightily to the repugnant od0rs emanating from the Washington Swamp. The man is incorrigible. It’s time for a change, a breath of fresh air and balanced, thoughtful, egalitarian, forward thinking policy making by our elected representatives.