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FW: Joe Carson meeting on 8/23 with Larry Brady Congress_request_OLC-review-links21.pdf

------------------------------------------From: Joe Carson[SMTP:JPCARSON@TDS.NET] Sent: Saturday, August 14, 2010 12:02:40 AM To: BRC; jpcarson@tds.net Subject: Fwd: Joe Carson meeting on 8/23 with Larry Brady Auto forwarded by a Rule Dear Blue Ribbon Commission, I belong to AAAS (www.aaas.org), was twice nominated for its "scientific freedom and responsibility" award and have read the article about your work in the August 13 issue of Science, published by AAAS. National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE www.nspe.org) and its TN state society, TSPE www.tnspe.org are supposed to be about uplifting, advancing, and defending engineering ethics and the public health, safety, and welfare. But engineering ethics is "in the ditch" - there are significant deficiencies to its scope and implementation - and its "in the ditch" status contributes to the lack of public trust in government and public institutions in general. Suffice to say that if federal employees cannot - as I contend the indisputable facts show - do their duties in a trustworthy fashion, per the merit system principles, while being adequately protected from reprisal and other prohibeted personnel practices (PPP's) - your work about a nuclear future for America is futile, there is no nuclear future. Respectfully, Joe Carson, PE Knoxville, TN ************************************************************

>Dear TSPE/NSPE leaders, > >My Congressman, John Duncan, is well aware of my 18 year-long battle, >centered on PE licensure, engineering ethics, and "merit system >principles" of federal civil service, in Department of Energy. He >facilitated a meeting between me and Larry Brady, the senior Republican >staffer on the House Oversight and Gov't Reform Committee, on August 23 >in DC (Mr. Duncan is a senior Republican member of this Committee). > >I hope, as a result, the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) of the >Department of Justice will issue opinions on the interpretation of 3 >vital, interlocking, sections of civil service law, which I contend has

>been misinterpreted by the responsible agencies for 31 years (the >attached is a 2 page summary with hyperlinks to cited >documents). If this happens and my concerns are substantiated, I >should then be in a position to influence Congress to mandate PE >licensure of federal and, possibly, federal contractor, engineers >(with appropriate grandfathering). That would significantly >advance the cause of universal PE licensure and the public health, >safety, and welfare, core TPSE/NPSE values. > >Therefore, I hope TSPE/NSPE will support my efforts to have OLC so tasked. > >Respectfully, > >Joe Carson, PE > >PS The following is a recent story about Larry Brady > > >Washington Post > >GOP takeover could make committee staff member Democrats' 'worst nightmare' >By Mary Ann Akers > >Washington Post Staff Writer >Monday, July 12, 2010; A13 > >If there's one congressional aide White House officials might wind up >fearing most, it's Larry Brady. > >He's all but unknown, but Brady is the secret weapon for Rep. >Darrell Issa (R-Calif.). As minority staff director of the House >Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Brady stands ready to wield >almighty subpoena power if Republicans seize control of the chamber in >November and make Issa chairman of the panel. > >Handing subpoena power to Issa and his staff would be the White House's >"worst nightmare," says Don Goldberg, a crisis-management expert at >Qorvis Communications. > >"The administration underestimates Larry Brady's effectiveness at its >own peril," says Goldberg, who once served as Democratic deputy staff >director of the same panel and did damage control for President Bill >Clinton. "He knows how to pick the issues that resonate, and get media >attention with or without fingerprints." > >As head of the GOP staff on the oversight panel, Brady has been at the >forefront of exposing controversies that, if nothing else, have caused >political headaches for the Obama administration. They include >allegations that the White House tried to bribe Democratic challengers >in this year's Pennsylvania and Colorado Senate races to drop out. Issa >also released a report that he said documented ACORN's aggressive
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>political support for Democratic candidates. The report helped make the >community organizing group a hot-button political issue and a target >for conservative activists. Later, Congress cut off federal funding to >the organization. > >On a more bipartisan level, Brady has led the GOP's side of >investigations into a sex-and- drugs scandal at the Interior >Department's Minerals Management Service and the Obama administration's >response to the BP oil spill. > >If, come January when a new Congress convenes, Brady finds himself the >majority staff director, expect to see a parade of people appearing >before the committee. He tried to avoid naming names, but it's clear he >has at least two Cabinet-level officials already in mind. > >"The accusations against Bush were rampant with [Alberto S.] Gonzales. >But you know, there's not a similar kind of indignation against the >current attorney general," Brady said, referring to Eric H. Holder Jr. > >Holder should have investigated ACORN, he said, as well as allegations >that the White House dangled job offers to Andrew Romanoff of Colorado >and Rep. Joe Sestak of Pennsylvania in order to persuade them to drop >out of Senate Democratic primary races. "He should have looked at the >Sestak-Romanoff issue, if for no other reason than to exonerate his >boss, unless he didn't think he could," >Brady said. (The Justice Department declined to respond directly to >Brady's comment.) > >Another Obama official who should worry if Republicans gain control? >"We'd probably get Geithner here," Brady said of Treasury Secretary >Timothy F. Geithner. > >Would he help his boss use the committee to investigate President >Obama, much the way a former chairman, Rep. Dan Burton (R-Ind.), did >during the Clinton administration? "No, that's grandstanding," he said. > >At 71, Brady isn't your usual congressional staffer. He was an >assistant secretary of commerce in the Reagan administration. He ran >unsuccessfully for the Senate in his home state, New Hampshire, in 1980 >and waged a GOP primary race for the House in 1992, when he lost by 314 >votes. > >"I'm not a poster child for early retirement," Brady said. Kurt >Bardella, Issa's press secretary, joked, "He's like a great-great>great-grandfather figure to us." > >Deliberative, soft-spoken and professorial -- he finished the course >work for a doctorate but not his dissertation -- Brady comes off as a >polar opposite of the media-focused Issa. > >"You don't want someone just like you in these roles," said former
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>congressman Tom Davis (R-Va.), who has known Brady for more than 40 years. > >The two go back to the Senate in the early '60s, when Davis was a >teenage page and Brady was his supervisor in the Senate Republican >cloakroom. Decades later, Brady worked for Davis on the Government >Reform Committee, as it was then known, which Davis chaired. > >"You don't want someone there who is going to be quick on the draw," >Davis added. "They have to be judicious in how they utilize the >subpoena power." > >And if things do break his party's way, Brady wishes his targets no >hard feelings. >He added: "It's not personal; it's issue-oriented." > >