Is the post-partisan thing finally taking hold?
At first glance it might seem so, as President Barack Obama has nominated Dana Perino, George W. Bush’s press secretary, to serve on the Broadcasting Board of Governors.
Alas, this act of detente may not be a signal of things to come.
Obama is required by law to maintain the bipartisan nature of the board, which oversees Voice of America and all other U.S. government, nonmilitary international broadcasts.
Dana Perino
In other words, Perino is filling one of four Republican seats on the board.
No longer in government, Perino is now the chief U.S. issues counselor for Burson-Marsteller, the public relations giant. In addition, she’s a frequent contributor to Fox News.
This week, Perino offered her take on the media coverage of former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s memoir and her book tour.
In her comments, Perino criticized as “sexist” the Newsweek magazine cover that use a picture of Palin in running shorts, a picture taken earlier for use by Runner’s World magazine.
Given her former job, Perino often finds herself defending the Bush administration. And sometimes she finds herself defending herself.
Earlier this year, Bill O’Reilly pointed his finger at Perino and faulted her for not taking criticizing NBC News for the bias he found in its broadcasts.
“You, Dana Perino should have gone out there and hammered them and had every American aware at how dishonest NBC has been,” O’Reilly said.
“I don’t think you can say everybody at NBC was like that,” Perino countered, making a point that O’Reilly would not accept.
A native of Colorado, Perino, 37, a former television journalist, worked on two congressional staffs, including a stint as press secretary to Rep. Dan Schaefer, a Republican from Colorado.
She was a press spokesperson for the Department of Justice for two years, beginning that job soon after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
In 2003, she joined the communications staff of the White House Council on Environment Quality. In 2005, she became deputy White House press secretary.
In 2007, she became press secretary, replacing Tony Snow, who left to deal with the cancer that would take his life the next year.
Perino was the second woman to serve as a presidential press secretary. Dee Dee Myers held the job in the first two years of the Clinton administration.
In addition to Perino, Obama nominated seven other people to serve on the Broadcasting Board of Governors, subject to approval of the U.S. Senate.
Walter Isaacson, the former chairman of CNN, is the president’s choice for chairman of the broadcasting board.
The other Democrats nominated were Michael Lynton, the chairman and CEO of Sony Pictures Entertainment; Susan McCue, a former aide to Sen. Harry Reid, the Senate majority leader; and Michael Meehan, the president of BGR Public Relations and a former adviser to several members of Congress.
The other Republicans were Victor H. Ashe, the former mayor of Knoxville; Dennis Mulhaupt, the managing director of Commonwealth Inc., and a former television executive; and S. Enders Wimbush, a senior vice president at the Hudson Institute.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is on the board by reason of her office.
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