While this question never goes out of style for the firebaggers over at Firedoglake it is really a awkward question and he has done so many things. Just in a couple of recent examples he has negotiated an agreement with the U.S. auto industry for tough new standards whereby we will achieve an average fuel efficiency for cars of 55 miles per gallon by 2024. He has also gained something new for woman in the Affordable Health Care Act where women will no longer have to pay co-pays for birth control. To name just two that come to mind but haven't been at all widely reported least of all at FDL.
Another thing that has been unsung is Obama's signing an executive order for the Dream Act. And speaking of the rights of immigration brings us to Thomas Perez the Justice Department's Assistant Attorney for the Civil Rights Division, a man who while unsung works tirelessly for the civil rights of Americans every day.
Just on the issue of immigration, Mr. Thomas's Justice Departmment on August 1 brought a suit against Alabama to stop implementation of it's draconian new anti-immigration law that was set to go into effect September 1.
"The Justice Department has filed a lawsuit against Alabama’s new controversial immigration law, essentially fighting Alabama on grounds similar to its legal battle with Arizona over that state’s controversial law.In both cases, the Justice Department argues that the states are overstepping their authority by wading into something that is a strictly federal responsibility: immigration enforcement."
This quote was actually from the Potomac Tea Party Report
http://potomacteapartyreport.wordpress.com/2011/08/02/justice-department-sues-alabama-over-immigration-law-thomas-perez-lurking-behind-the-scenes/
So of course they disapproved of Mr. Thomas' actions.
"State leaders say the Obama Administration is doing little to protect the citizens and the economy of Alabama.
State leaders say the Obama Administration is doing little to protect the citizens and the economy of Alabama.The Obama administration and the federal bureaucrats have turned a blind eye toward the immigration issue and refuse to fulfill their constitutional duty to enforce laws already on the books. Now, they want to block our efforts to secure Alabama’s borders and prevent our jobs and taxpayer dollars from disappearing into the abyss that illegal immigration causes,” (Republican state Rep. Micky Hammon) said
“Allowing hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants to run unchecked under the radar threatens our homeland security and insults those who come here legally,” he added.
The DOJ suit bore fruit temporarily delaying the law's implementation.
http://articles.cnn.com/2011-08-29/us/alabama.immigration.law_1_immigration-law-immigration-status-illegal-immigration?_s=PM:US
There is a saying, by their fruits you will know them. I'd like suggest that a paraphrase judge his fruit by who oppose him. All the right people-pun intended-oppose Mr. Thomas. Alabama Senator, Jeff Sessions opposed his nomination. Already that's a major point in his favor.
"According to Main Justice, an independent, non-partisan news Web site, Perez's nomination languished for several months amid questions by Republican senators about his record on immigration matters and by controversy over the Obama Justice Department's dismissal of a voter intimidation case against the militant New Black Panther Party."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Perez
Recently Mr. Perez was under attack by-shocker-the Wall Street Journal editorial page.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904199404576538283776006582.html
On August 31, Mary Kissel, a member of the WSJ editorial board attacked him in her article, " Justice's New War Against Lenders."
Ms. Kissel begins her piece with an affectation of disapproval.
"Talk about not learning from past mistakes: A government department is again intimidating banks into lending to minority borrowers at below-market rates, all in the name of combating "discrimination." Welcome to the next housing mess.
The 1990s may have brought us supercharged politicized lending, but Eric Holder's Department of Justice is taking the game to an entirely new level, and then some. The weapon is a "fair lending" unit created in early 2010, led by special counsel Eric Halperin and overseen by Civil Rights Division head Thomas Perez.
A sampling of Mr. Perez's thinking, from April 2010 congressional testimony: "The foreclosure crisis has touched virtually every community in this country, but it disproportionately touches communities of color, in particular African-Americans and Latinos." And: "[C]ross burnings are the most overt form of discrimination and bigotry. Lending discrimination is some of the most subtle. It's what I call discrimination with a smile."
Even for the Obama administration's anti-discrimination cops, this is a shocker: A political appointee who's supposed to neutrally enforce the law loosely equates bankers with Klu Klux Klan thugs. But let's move from what may be Mr. Perez's personal bias, and focus on the broader brush strokes of the Justice Department—which seem designed to paint bankers into a corner."
Notice the patented Right wing revisionist history: Talk about not learning from past mistakes: A government department is again intimidating banks into lending to minority borrowers at below-market rates, all in the name of combating "discrimination." Welcome to the next housing mess.
Right, cause the main lesson from the "last housing mess" is that it was wholly caused by the desire not to discriminate against minorities.
" what Justice is up to sounds like the same government-directed, quota-based lending push that brought us the last housing boom and bust."
This revisionism has served them well, just like the revision that the only financial institutions that acted egregiously throughout the mortgage mess were Fannie and Freddie.
To this piece Mr. Thomas fought back with a piece that appeared on the WSJ editorial page on September 6.
The name of the piece is "Government is Right to Fight Discrimination in Lending"
"Mary Kissel's "Justice's New War Against Lenders" (op-ed, Aug. 31) accuses the Justice Department of politicized enforcement of fair lending laws and claims that the department's fair lending enforcement practices would create another housing crisis.
Contrary to Ms. Kissel's assertion, the Justice Department's focus on fair lending enforcement is precisely what is needed to ensure that all qualified borrowers have equal access to fair and responsible lending, as is required by law. Common-sense consumer protection and promoting a sound climate for lending go hand in hand and are inextricably intertwined. The absence of effective consumer protections and the dearth of meaningful federal enforcement in recent years not only hurt communities across the country, but also brought about staggering losses in the industry and undermined the safety and soundness of so many lending institutions."
"The suggestion that the department, as part of its settlements, is forcing banks to lower their underwriting standards and make loans to unqualified borrowers is simply wrong."
"What Ms. Kissel and other critics refuse to acknowledge is that the failure of some lending institutions to offer credit to qualified borrowers—who were disqualified for loans not because of their creditworthiness but solely based on race—in minority neighborhoods on the same basis as qualified borrowers in nonminority neighborhoods, was one of the factors that contributed to the subprime lending boom and subsequent crisis. When good lenders fail to serve entire communities, it creates a vacuum ready to be filled by predatory players.
"All qualified home buyers should have access to sustainable credit without being subject to illegal discrimination. The Justice Department will unapologetically continue to ensure they can do so."
Here Mr. Perez gives an important corrective on the Right wing propaganda that somehow anti-discrimination in lending laws-in the dominant revisionist theme the Community Revinestment Act and Fannie and Freddie with Barney Frank personally come under special attack. In 2009 Grover Norquist wrote a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder demanding that he investigate Rahm Emmanuel and the time he was at F&F. Jane Hamsher of course felt the need to get in on the act because she was supposedly on a good government jag, ignoring the fact that point of this action from Norquist had nothing to do with the desire to stamp out corporate corruption per se but because it was in the larger ideology that the financial crisis is a government failure than a market failure.
If you have not heard so much about Thomas Perez-as I hadn't previously-here is another thing Obama has done for us in appointing such a dedicated and capable public servant protecting our interests and expanding our civil rights.
Contrary to Ms. Kissel's assertion, the Justice Department's focus on fair lending enforcement is precisely what is needed to ensure that all qualified borrowers have equal access to fair and responsible lending, as is required by law. Common-sense consumer protection and promoting a sound climate for lending go hand in hand and are inextricably intertwined. The absence of effective consumer protections and the dearth of meaningful federal enforcement in recent years not only hurt communities across the country, but also brought about staggering losses in the industry and undermined the safety and soundness of so many lending institutions."
"The suggestion that the department, as part of its settlements, is forcing banks to lower their underwriting standards and make loans to unqualified borrowers is simply wrong."
"What Ms. Kissel and other critics refuse to acknowledge is that the failure of some lending institutions to offer credit to qualified borrowers—who were disqualified for loans not because of their creditworthiness but solely based on race—in minority neighborhoods on the same basis as qualified borrowers in nonminority neighborhoods, was one of the factors that contributed to the subprime lending boom and subsequent crisis. When good lenders fail to serve entire communities, it creates a vacuum ready to be filled by predatory players.
"All qualified home buyers should have access to sustainable credit without being subject to illegal discrimination. The Justice Department will unapologetically continue to ensure they can do so."
Here Mr. Perez gives an important corrective on the Right wing propaganda that somehow anti-discrimination in lending laws-in the dominant revisionist theme the Community Revinestment Act and Fannie and Freddie with Barney Frank personally come under special attack. In 2009 Grover Norquist wrote a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder demanding that he investigate Rahm Emmanuel and the time he was at F&F. Jane Hamsher of course felt the need to get in on the act because she was supposedly on a good government jag, ignoring the fact that point of this action from Norquist had nothing to do with the desire to stamp out corporate corruption per se but because it was in the larger ideology that the financial crisis is a government failure than a market failure.
If you have not heard so much about Thomas Perez-as I hadn't previously-here is another thing Obama has done for us in appointing such a dedicated and capable public servant protecting our interests and expanding our civil rights.
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