*NEA chairman answers GOP concerns that his agency has a partisan agenda

Striking a polite, conciliatory note while asserting that there's nothing rotten in the state of the agency he's led for less than two months, National Endowment for the Arts chairman Rocco Landesman responded today to Senate Republicans' request for information about a controversial Aug.10 teleconference that led to the demotion, then resignation, of Yosi Sergant, the NEA's rookie director of communications.

Apart from Sergant's participation in the conference call, "I am unaware of the use of any taxpayer dollars for the...conference call or related activity," Landesman said in his letter to Sen. Mike Enzi (R-Wyoming), ranking Republican on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pension Committee. Enzi and his nine fellow Republican committee members last week wrote to Landesman, asking that he respond by today to their concerns, including whether NEA funds were being used to advance the Obama administration's legislative agenda on healthcare and other issues.

"This isolated incident, undertaken without agency approval and prior to my tenure, should in no way tarnish" the NEA's achievements and worth to the American public,  wrote Landesman, whose letter was made available to Culture Monster by Enzi's committee staff.

Landesman's response reiterated what he said in a previous written statement on the matter: that Sergant, a former L.A. public relations man who had helped organize and promote artist Shepard Fairey's pro-Obama poster campaign during the 2008 election, had used "inappropriate" language during the teleconference, but did not overstep any of the legal prohibitions against on-the-job politicking by federal employees.

In the conference call, Sergant and officials from two other federal agencies had urged invited arts folk to join and help promote the president's United We Serve initiative that aims to increase charitable volunteerism nationwide. What got Sergant into trouble, the NEA has indicated, was that instead of merely informing his listeners about volunteer opportunities, he urged them to take part.

When word of the teleconference got out, and it was characterized by Fox News' Glenn Beck and others as a violation of the NEA's mandate to be a nonpartisan funder and promoter of the arts, Senate and House Republicans began demanding congressional hearings or, in the case of Enzi (pictured) and his colleagues, answers to questions.

Landesman's response today noted that all NEA staffers get annual ethics training, including warnings against prohibited political activities. But in light of the teleconference controversy, he said, training efforts are being stepped up in a way that dovetails with a memo that special counsels to Obama issued to White House employees because of the brouhaha over the teleconference. That memo outlined the need to "avoid even the appearance of impropriety" when addressing the public about government programs.

Landesman said that the NEA is also reviewing whether "to reinforce" its existing directives to staff members on complying with the laws and conduct standards governing federal agency employees, and whether to stiffen the consequences for violating them.

"Thank you for the opportunity to clarify this matter and assure you of my commitment" to a nonpartisan NEA, Landesman concluded. "I look forward to working with you going forward."

Enzi issued a statement saying that "on initial review [he] appreciates Chairman Landesman’s response and his commitment to ethics training to make sure this does not happen again.  He looks forward to working with the Chairman to help fulfill NEA’s mission."

Less circumspect about the recent Republican questions, complaints and calls for hearings over the teleconference is Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.), a leading arts advocate in Congress.

"It's outrageous...utter nonsense," she said this week, characterizing the stormy reaction as an attempt by conservatives to revive the "culture wars" of the late 1980s and early 1990s that centered on NEA funding of several confrontational visual and performance artists, including Robert Mapplethorpe and Karen Finley. The outcome was a steep reduction in the agency's funding, and a virtual end to NEA grants to individual artists.

"This is no different than what we went through before, with [the NEA] as a convenient whipping boy, always accusing them of some nefarious thing they haven't done," Slaughter said.

She added that the NEA shouldn't be deterred from pushing volunteerism opportunities and being an ally of self-employed artists who struggle to find affordable health insurance.

In regard to Sergant's resignation under pressure after finding himself in political crosshairs, Slaughter asked,  "Is Glenn Beck the final arbitrator of who works in Washington?"

-- Mike Boehm

*Updated: an earlier version of this story misstated how long Landesman has held his NEA post. It has been less than two months, not less than one month.

Related stories:

Rocco Landesman, from the Great White Way to the White House

10 more GOP Senators demand answers from the NEA about teleconference

NEA chairman explains communications director's demotion

Texas senator warns Obama against `politicization' of the NEA

Photos: Rocco Landesman; Mike Enzi. Credits: Michael Eastman; Charles Dharapak/AP

Comments

[William Smith]

It is clear the point of view of the writer is progressive. Where is the balance? Only quotes from supporters of NEA, and frankly dismissive comments. Don't you get it? The NEA was being used by a corrupt administration for propaganda. I am neither a dem or a rep, but an independent. Corruption like this got me out of my chair to comment.

[Jo Bell]

The NEA is dispicable in the way they have behaved. What little credibility they had is now gone. What the NEA has done is wrong no matter how you dress it up or who you try to point fingers at. Thank God for Glen Beck for shining a light into the darkness of the NEA.

[Kit Baker]

"[Glenn Beck] is aligned with cynicism. And there's always been a market for cynicism. But we became a great nation not because we are a nation of cynics. We became a great nation because we are a nation of believers." Lindsey Graham, Republican Senator of South Carolina.

The believers who have really been following the situation with the NEA over the years (for example, Laura Bush, a staunch supporter of the NEA's work) know that the nonsense being spouted by Beck and the people who have commented here is due to ignorance, wilful or no, of the real situation.

Attacks on the NEA by the Republican right exhibit exactly the kind of cynicism that Senator Graham is talking about. They are made not because the attackers care about the arts and want the situation to improve, but because it is so consistently easy to make political hay and energize the base by abusing a tried and tested whipping boy. It's been happening for over twenty years now.

Judging from the comment by the self-declared independent Mr Smith, this cynical old tactic is still so effective that the discord and misinformation it creates infects our society beyond the Republican base.

I'm with Senator Graham. I say we acknowledge our differences with good faith, and start debating the real issues. The Republican senators should drop their demands, and let Rocco Landesman do his real job, which is to give much needed support to the best American artists and arts organizations, which are among our country's greatest assets.

[charliemax]

The word "outrageous" now means "it's true and now public knowledge".

[Elliott]

Well…let’s see how this sounds if the situation was reversed. Have Yosi cobble together 100 + freedom-loving anti-Obama artist and dangle millions of dollars of grant money in there faces under the condition that they use their artistic skills and talent to produce anti-Obama videos, art, music, etc. Anything that promotes individual freedoms and rightfully denigrates Socialism, Marxism, Statism, bigger government…you know the proven cancerous ideas that have destroyed individual freedoms since Karl Marx made the ideas sound sexy-revolutionary. What do you think Yosi…can you do this from your new position? If you really understood or cared about freedom you would stop being a shill for this abusive government.

The people of Cuba, just 90 miles off our border, have no human rights, yet this does not seemed to bother the current administration. The Useful Idiots (a term Stalin used to describe those on the left whom he could always rely upon to undermine the freedoms of our free-market system…of course all of these people were Democrats) used to be a fringe group relegated to journalists and college English departments are now in charge of both the Executive and Legislative branches of our government. A fundamental change is taking place in America as these Useful Idiots now feel its safe to come out of the closet. Their god (leader) has become this creepy messiah cult image with his followers chanting Yes We Can….over and over. Bravo Fidel and Hugo, you now have a brother in the White House.

[wade]

Let us be clear. All the NEA is and always has been is a cluster of liberals. The "training" spoken of here will be how to be more careful and avoid detection of the biases they always show, in their behavior as well as the grant process.

Liberals take care of their own and always use their positions to further the liberal agenda (let's find out where Sergant is working now). You want people to believe you are serious about running a non partisan operation at NEA? Start hiring some people who are obviously conservative that can contribute to the dialog. A conservative in this den of thieves would cramp their style so things at NEA will remain a bastion of liberal like-think. They will just be more careful who they share their plans with.

[wade]

As to the comments by Kit Baker. I read comments like yours but they always have a common thread. NEVER ARE ANY LIES LISTED IN YOUR COMMENT. This leads me to believe that simply because Beck provides the facts to the public that roasts your guys the only way to fight it is to attack the messenger. Beck has produced a trove of information that could be attacked. It seems odd that out of all this info that floods out of Beck's show, none of you liberals ever list ANY evidence of the lies you claim. Same with Rush Limbaugh. He's on the radio 15 hours a week yet Media Matters and other liberal blogs never can list the lies they claim. You people have to catch Beck or Rush out of context to ever make a case. I find this phenomenon quite telling.

[kevin]

Wade: lies include:
*that any money was offered to artists (the nea doesn't even give grants to individual artists)
*that the artists had gotten any money from the stimulus
*that the call was about promoting health care reform
*that the participants in NEA granting are all liberal (nearly on the National council on the arts which advises this process was appointed by G.W. Bush)

Ben Davis spells it all out here
http://www.artnet.com/magazineus/reviews/davis/new-culture-wars9-28-09.asp

[Kit Baker]

Wade

You didn't read what I wrote. I am not accusing Beck of lying. I am accusing Beck of cynicism, and of wilfully misrepresenting the NEA's work purely in order to do damage to the Obama administration.

Beck is absolutely right that Yosi Sargant, who led the conference call that started this whole thing, was way off base. Sargant has, quite rightly, paid for that with his job.

However, Rocco Landesman has stated unequivocally that Sargant's actions were not taken with NEA approval. Beck has produced absolutely no evidence to suggest otherwise, nor to suggest that the "artworks" he showed on his program (they looked like posters to me, but never mind) had anything at all to do with the NEA.

Beck chose to ignore the work the NEA actually does day in and day out, which is to ensure that excellent events such as these and others keep coming to theatres, concert halls, museums and fairgrounds all over the country: http://arts.endow.gov/grants/recent/09grants/09AAE.php?CAT=Access&DIS=Dance.

And Beck couldn't even be bothered to get the name of the agency right. It's the National Endowment FOR the arts, not OF the arts.

Beck clearly doesn't care about the good work the NEA actually does. He found an aberration, called it out, and wilfully whipped up hostility which is uncalled for and out of all proportion to the mistake that was made.

And, Wade, since you brought up the issue of lies - I wonder what you feel about the lies that led us into the Iraq war, which cost America trillions of dollars, thousands of lives, and untold damage to our global interests? Forget Glenn Beck, forget the NEA - these are the kinds of lies we should REALLY be worried about, for all our sakes.

[Tracy Long]

Since when is charitable volunteerism a bad idea? If George W. Bush's administration put forth a similar initiative, I firmly believe it would STILL be a good idea. And what non-profit arts organization does not need volunteers? Why shouldn't arts organizations advocate for and urge our audiences to participate? I don't care who the President is: volunteerism is a good idea. It benefits our nation, our communities and our fellow man. All that, and volunteering makes us feel good. Mr. Sergant probably felt this way, too, before he lost his job. It's sad that charitable volunteerism is considered by some to be despicable and political.