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Air Force nominee rejected
By DAVID DAHL, BILL ADAIR and KATHERINE PFLEGER © St. Petersburg Times, published July 23, 1998 What a miscalculation. In the wake of Jones' rejection Wednesday, some senators and independent observers say party politics poisoned his chance to sparkle on a national stage. Others suggest Jones muffed his chances with lame explanations about his past. Others say the problem was skin deep: Jones is black. This much is certain: Jones, an up-and-comer in Florida politics, left the nation's capital tarnished. Washington claimed another victim. He joins a series of failed nominees who include would-be Supreme Court Justice Robert Bork and Bush administration Defense Department nominee John Tower. During the Clinton years, the rejected include Lani Guinier, picked in 1993 to head the civil rights division of the Justice Department, and Henry Foster, the would-be surgeon general. Unlike some of those nominees, who faced concerted opposition from political interest groups when the Senate considered their candidacy, Jones faced a different threat: old enemies back home. Former colleagues from the Air Force Reserve -- including his former commander at Homestead Air Force Base -- told reporters and the Armed Services Committee that Jones overstated his credentials as a pilot of fighter jets. The committee also was told that Jones, against Air Force policy, pressured reserve colleagues to buy Amway products. How did his colleagues remember those details? Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., said Jones' mates kept a private dossier on the up-and-coming Air Force academy graduate who was the first black pilot in their squadron. "Back when Daryl Jones joined that squadron, race was a factor," Levin said. "They kept a file on him." To blacks in Congress and among Florida politicians, Jones is merely the latest in a string of African-American nominees to run into trouble. They remain puzzled why Jones -- a lawyer, state legislator and someone mentioned as a gubernatorial candidate -- was trashed. "It's very hard for me to understand why they rejected him," said U.S. Rep. Carrie Meek, a black Democrat from Miami. "I hate to play the race card. But as I play all these things in my mind, race keeps coming back to the surface." Miami state Rep. Beryl Roberts-Burke, chair of the Conference of Black State Legislators, agreed: "I wonder if they would have gone into that detail if he had not been black." "Judges who are black come under attack," added U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings, a Miami Democrat who was impeached by the Senate because of unproven bribery allegations he faced as a federal judge. "Cabinet officials who are minorities have a difficult time in their nomination. The ones who are scrutinized the most are minorities. The Senate has been a good ol' boys club for a long time." Yet, in Jones' case, the charge of racial politics is complicated by the fact that a Republican from the Deep South -- onetime segregationist Strom Thurmond of South Carolina -- crossed party lines and strongly supported him, while a Democrat, Charles Robb of Virginia, had signaled opposition. For their part, Republicans insist race was not a factor. Instead, the White House did a poor job examining Jones' flaws and deflating complaints. Taken together, they said, the allegations led them to conclude that Jones was unqualified to lead 380,000 service members and 115,000 civilians. Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., said Jones damaged his credibility by changing his story from one hearing to the next. "A lot should have been vetted in more detail before it got here," added Sen. Robert Smith, R-N.H. White House officials said they were well aware of the questions in Jones' background and were satisfied with his answers. Sen. Bob Graham, D-Fla., agreed. "I think the Pentagon, the FBI, the White House did a thorough investigation on the things that were relevant," Graham said. "The report I saw fully disclosed questions that had been raised and why they felt those questions have been answered." Instead of a mishandled background check, some blame the partisan hot house the Senate becomes when considering nominees, especially those made by a politically weakened president. Veteran Republican lobbyist Tom Korologos, who has helped presidents of both parties move nominees through the Senate, says partisanship has tainted the process since the battle over Bork, President Ronald Reagan's nominee to the high court. The successful effort by liberals to derail the selection in 1987 led to a new phrase in Washington. To attack a nominee is to "Bork" someone. "We've bastardized the nomination process," Korologos said. In the 1980s, Democrats used the Bork nomination to signal they would use their control of the Senate as leverage over the personnel choices and patronage from the Republican-run White House. Republicans -- who took control of the Senate in 1994 -- have never forgotten it, Korologos said. Nan Aron, head of the liberal Alliance for Justice group, complains the GOP-run Senate has stalled Clinton's judicial nominees because they don't want to see a Democratic president load the federal courts with his selections. "Politics is the driving force. They simply do not want to give the president his appointments, even though the vast majority have credentials Republicans like. They're moderate." Korologos, who wasn't involved in the Jones nomination, said flawed nominees can survive by solidly explaining away problems that surface. Senators do not like surprises, so he always advises the nominees and the White House to confess early. "It's the question I ask everybody: What is there in your background you are embarrased about and that would embarrass the president? You better get an answer to it, because they're going to find it and ask you about it," Korologos said. Sen. John Glenn, D-Ohio, said that in this case, he doesn't blame Clinton. "The White House did a good enough job. Too much politics got mixed up in the whole thing," Glenn said. "Of all the allegations, not one of them has been proven."
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ASHINGTON -- When state Sen. Daryl Jones surfaced as a candidate to head the Air Force last year, the customary background check turned up a few flaws. But President Clinton and Jones' backers felt his stellar resume would overshadow any nickel-and-dime concerns.
