Center for Disease Control Director Susan Monarez and Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook are the epitome of what was called in a book from long ago, The Arrogance of Power.
That classic of the 1960s, authored by Arkansas Democrat Senator J. William Fulbright, the Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, was not merely a lacerating critique of Democrat President Lyndon B. Johnson and his conduct of American foreign policy, specifically the Vietnam War.
There was a larger point from Fulbright. Right off the bat, Fulbright writes that those running American foreign policy were in danger of losing their perspective on “what exactly is within the realm of its power and what is beyond it.”
Fulbright goes on to discuss the danger of the attitude he saw with American policy makers, namely “the tendency … to equate power with virtue and major responsibilities with a universal mission.”
That description seems to perfectly fit the CDC’s Susan Monarez and the Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook.
No one — say again no one — elected either to their jobs. Doubtless, each has the usual American story that they went to school, studied hard, and got a good education. When it was time to get a job, they each oriented to positions in areas of interest — Monarez to health issues, Cook to economics.
Now, Cook — a financial regulator — stands accused of alleged mortgage fraud. Fox Business headlines: “Trump fired Fed Governor Lisa Cook over alleged mortgage fraud: what did she do?”
The Fox story reports:
Last week, Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte submitted a criminal referral to the Justice Department accusing Cook of improperly claiming residence status while obtaining mortgages for two homes in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and Atlanta, Georgia. Cook hasn’t been charged with a crime, and it’s unclear whether a DOJ investigation will result in charges being filed.
In the case of the CDC’s Monarez, here’s the headline from The Hill: “White House says CDC director fired after she refuses to resign.”
Now for the obvious. No one elected either Cook or Monarez to anything. Strip away the imagined power of their respective jobs, and in this tale, only one person has the authority to fire them. That would be…drumroll please — the elected president of the United States. The president, in fact, has the constitutional responsibility to run the federal government.
In the case of the CDC’s Monarez, her dismissal was handled by another presidential appointee who outranks her — that would be the secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Step away from the flashy headlines and personalities, and these two firings come down to a basic and sad-to-say, all too frequent issue.
Which is to say, the American people, as provided in the Constitution, have the authority to elect a president, and that President, no matter his party, has the authority to run the executive branch, hiring and firing at will. And in the case of hiring, several positions in the executive branch — in this case, Secretary Kennedy’s — are appointed by the president and must receive confirmation from the United States Senate.
Make no mistake. What is unfolding in the firing controversies of a CDC and Federal Reserve employee — and their resistance and outright refusal to leave their jobs as demanded by their elected presidential boss — is nothing less than an all too familiar and vivid display of an arrogance of power on behalf of appointed federal employees who think they — not their elected boss — have that right.
They would be wrong.
And if they choose to fight their dismissals, then it is indeed time for a court case that reaffirms the constitutional right of the president of the United States to run the executive branch of government precisely as the Constitution provides.
And let the American people judge the results.
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