This column in the Washington Times calls for “aggressive changes” at the Department of Labor. The author is Bill Walton — no, not the world’s tallest Deadhead but rather the chairman of CNP Action, Inc., a sister organization of the Council for National Policy. Walton served as the Trump transition team senior economic policy adviser.
Walton rehearses some, though certainly not all, of the areas in which the Acosta Labor Department has betrayed conservatism. He highlights the DOL’s discrimination action against Oracle, which I criticized here.
I disagree with Walton in two respects. First, the DOL does not need aggressive changes. It needs only one change — the sacking of Alex Acosta.
Pat Pizzella, the Deputy Secretary, and Kate O’Scannlain, the DOL solicitor, are strong and capable conservatives. If Acosta is removed, I’m confident they will steer the Labor Department in the right direction.
I also disagree with this statement by Walton:
Sometimes you can have a brilliant career doing many things exceptionally well and then turn out just not to be very good at your new job. This certainly seems to be the case with Secretary of Labor Alex Acosta.
No it doesn’t. Acosta’s performance at the Department of Labor mirrors the cynical way he handled the top civil rights job at the Department of Justice under George W. Bush. The goal is the same — to minimize the unhappiness of liberals.
Based on his track record at DOJ, I warned against the selection of Acosta to head the DOL. In 16 years of blogging, I have very rarely been so prescient.
After Acosta left the Bush Justice Department, he became the U.S. Attorney in South Florida. His career there was hardly “brilliant.” It will be remembered for the nauseating sweetheart deal he gave to Jeffrey Epstein, the pedophile.
When one considers all of the able top level officials who have come and gone in the two and a half years Donald Trump has been president, it’s astonishing to think that Alex Acosta is still part of the administration. Flattery, it seems, will get you everywhere.
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