Nomination

School board has two seats up for appointment this year The many recent letters to the editor about "zero-basing" the staff at Annapolis High School prompts me to remind everyone that the school board has two seats up for appointment this year: the seat for District 21/32 held by Eugene Peterson and the at-large seat held by Konrad Wayson. The School Board Nominating Convention is the best way for Anne Arundel County residents to make their views known and to select who should serve on the board.

WASHINGTON -- Facing almost certain defeat in the Senate, the White House withdrew yesterday the ambassadorial nomination of Sam Fox, who contributed $50,000 to the Swift Boat veterans' campaign against Sen. John Kerry in the 2004 presidential race. President Bush had nominated Fox, a St. Louis businessman, to be the U.S. envoy to Belgium. The withdrawal, a rare setback for the sort of nomination that normally would sail through the Senate, reflected the muscle Democrats are exercising in Congress and the problems likely to surround any Bush appointee linked to the attacks on Kerry, a Massachusetts Democrat.

WASHINGTON -- The State Department's inspector general said yesterday that she had cleared Richard C. Holbrooke, President Clinton's nominee as chief U.S. diplomat to the United Nations, after an investigation of speaking fees that he accepted while he was an unpaid White House envoy to the Balkans.The decision to close the investigation removed a roadblock from Senate confirmation of Holbrooke, whose nomination to the U.N. post has been stalled for months.But congressional officials said Sen. Jesse Helms, a North Carolina Republican and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, would not allow the nomination to advance until the Senate had received a variety of internal documents from the Justice Department about an earlier ethics investigation of Holbrooke.

WASHINGTON -- Does anyone doubt that this presidential campaign is shaping up to be a little unconventional? Consider this: When Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah recently announced his intention to seek the presidency -- about 17 months before the next presidential election -- political insiders dismissed him as too late.When Mr. Hatch made his surprise declaration, 11 other Republicans were already in the field of presidential dreamers, some for a year or more. And one of them -- Texas Gov. George W. Bush -- was so far ahead in the polls that the wise men of politics were already anointing him as the next GOP nominee.

THE WEST SIDE of downtown Baltimore appears likely to become Maryland's newest federally designated historic district.After listening to nearly three hours of testimony Tuesday night, Baltimore's Commission for Historical and Architectural Preservation voted 4-1 to support the nomination of a 24-block section of downtown to the National Register of Historic Places.As a result of CHAP's action, the nomination will be sent to a state preservation panel, the Governor's Consulting Committee, for consideration.

WASHINGTON -- Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott has ordered his staff to take a "second look" at the nomination of Richard C. Holbrooke to be United Nations ambassador to determine if the veteran diplomat is fit for the post, the senator's office said yesterday.The "second look" by the Mississippi Republican could mean additional delays in the long-stalled nomination.And while the senator's staff said again that Lott expected Holbrooke to be confirmed eventually, the statement yesterday carried an implicit threat that the senator might still use his powers as majority leader to kill the nomination.

WASHINGTON -- The latest strategy Vice President Al Gore is pursuing in his quest for the presidency, according to the Washington Post, is to focus his fire on Texas Gov. George W. Bush, not former Sen. Bill Bradley of New Jersey.The only inference one can draw from that bit of intelligence is that the Gore campaign has decided everything has been settled for the general election campaign -- it's Mr. Gore vs. Mr. Bush -- six months before the first primaries and caucuses are held to choose convention delegates.

Westminster Common Council President Damian L. Halstad has declined his appointment to the Carroll County Circuit Court bench, noting political conflicts the nomination has caused in the community.The attorney, who is a Democrat in an overwhelmingly Republican county, made the surprise announcement last night during a meeting of the Westminster Common Council. Council members had shown up last night expecting to set a date to replace Halstad.Halstad, 38, was the youngest of five nominees to the post when he was appointed Oct. 13 by Gov. Parris N. Glendening.

WASHINGTON -- The Clinton administration has notified members of the Senate that Richard C. Holbrooke is close to a deal with the Justice Department to settle conflict-of-interest allegations, and that his nomination as chief U.S. delegate to the United Nations is likely to be sent to the Senate within days, government officials said yesterday.Under terms of the agreement, they said, Holbrooke will pay a penalty of a few thousand dollars to settle Justice Department allegations that he violated federal lobbying laws in his contacts with the U.S. Embassy in South Korea in 1996.

BILL LANN LEE, the president's nominee for assistant attorney general for civil rights, ought to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate.The nomination of Mr. Lee -- rejected more than a year ago by the Senate Judiciary Committee -- has been re-submitted by President Clinton.For most of the time since Senate Republicans -- led by Judiciary Chairman Orrin G. Hatch -- blocked his nomination, Mr. Lee has held the post on an acting basis. He could probably continue to do so through the remainder of President Clinton's term.

WASHINGTON - -Thomas E. Perez, the Maryland lawyer picked by President Barack Obama for the administration's most important civil rights post, is expected to win Senate confirmation today after months of delay. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada has scheduled an afternoon vote on Perez's nomination to head the Civil Rights division at the Justice Department. The nomination is expected to be approved by a comfortable margin, according to aides to Maryland Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin.

The U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals is the final stop for nearly all appeals from the five states served by the court, including Maryland. Although President Barack Obama has instituted measures to facilitate appointments, fully one-third of the 15 positions on the court are currently vacant, a situation that can erode the delivery of justice. The court now provides the smallest percentages of oral arguments and published opinions - critical yardsticks of appellate justice - although it decides appeals most quickly.

New talks are under way that should finally clear the way for the confirmation of federal Judge Andre M. Davis of Baltimore to the long-vacant "Maryland seat" on a federal appeals court, Senate sources said Thursday. Democratic and Republican Senate leaders have been negotiating the exact timing of confirmation votes on several of President Barack Obama's judicial nominees, including Davis. A deal could be reached by early next week, clearing the way for quick confirmation by the full Senate, a Senate staffer said.

Maryland Sens. Barbara A. Mikulski and Benjamin L. Cardin confirmed yesterday that they have recommended Maryland U.S. District Court Judge Andre M. Davis, a Baltimore native and 22-year career judge, for an open position on the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals. "I think he'd be a terrific choice, and I conveyed that to the White House," Mikulski said in a statement to The Baltimore Sun. Cardin echoed the sentiment. It's still up to President Barack Obama to make the official nomination, which the U.S. Senate must then confirm.

WASHINGTON - Hillary Clinton's name will be placed into nomination at the Democratic National Convention later this month, ending months of speculation about how her candidacy -- and supporters - would be represented there. "I am convinced that honoring Sen. Clinton's historic campaign in this way will help us celebrate this defining moment in our history and bring the party together in a strong, united fashion," Barack Obama said in a statement issued jointly by their two press offices.

Gov. Martin O'Malley yesterday announced appointments of 13 judges, including one to the state's highest court - but did not tap the Senate president's son for a seat on the Anne Arundel County District Court. Thomas V. Miller III's nomination in May for a trial bench vacancy led to the protest resignations of three members of the county's judicial nominating commission. At the time, Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller, a Prince George's County Democrat, said he worried that political fallout from the protests would likely hurt the chances for his son, a commissioner on the state parole board, to be appointed.

Today, Sen. Hillary Clinton, who gave her all in a rigorous, marathon primary campaign that left her just short of the Democratic presidential nomination, is expected to make her public peace with Sen. Barack Obama and renew her promise to campaign for him - we hope with the same tireless energy that won her admiration through the spring. For the millions whose passionate support carried Mrs. Clinton to a virtual tie in the popular vote with Mr. Obama, it has been difficult to accept the reality of defeat, as it clearly has been for her. Many, particularly women, feel that she was wounded by patronizing and misogynistic media.

WASHINGTON -- Hillary Clinton's comeback has reset the Democratic contest, reviving her nomination chances but raising prospects of an extended fight that could tear the party apart, strategists said yesterday. Her campaign-saving victories in Ohio and Texas opened the way to a nomination struggle with Barack Obama that could continue until the week before Labor Day, a specter that worries many Democrats. It would drain the Democratic financial advantage and take away time that could otherwise go into a presidential campaign against John McCain, the expected Republican nominee.

According to a survey conducted for the Associated Press and Yahoo News, fewer than one in five voters approves of Iowa and New Hampshire's "favored state" status in the presidential primaries, and nearly 80 percent would rather see other states get their chance at the front of the line. The sense of unease is not just that many Americans question whether a handful of voters from two low-population, not-very-diverse states should have so much more influence than other Americans in narrowing the field of presidential aspirants.

Surely no one would set out to create the absurd presidential nomination process that finally gets under way today with the Iowa caucuses. Yet the surrogates standing in there and in New Hampshire next week for the vast majority of American voters who won't have direct contact with candidates have done a good job of separating the corn from the husk while probably not signaling the final choice. In fact, both Republican and Democratic contests are so close, odds are the competition will continue in earnest for at least a few more weeks - maybe not until Maryland votes on Feb. 12, but longer than usual.