SEC Chief Digs Himself A Hole

The White House on Wednesday dismissed a request by Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Harvey Pitt for a raise and a higher profile, calling it a "potential distraction."

Pitt, under fire for his ties to the accounting industry at a time of corporate accounting scandals, had asked lawmakers to add a provision to corporate governance legislation that would elevate his office to the same rank as Cabinet posts and give him a raise of nearly 21 percent, from $138,200 to $166,700.

White House spokeswoman Claire Buchan said President Bush was focused on getting more resources and personnel for the SEC to investigate corporate abuse.

As for Pitt's request, "We view this as a potential distraction from that important business," she said.

White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said the provision was unlikely to be added to the corporate governance legislation as an amendment.

Pitt's request also received little backing from Congressional leaders.

House Speaker Dennis Hastert, an Illinois Republican, emerged from a breakfast meeting with the president to say that Congress was looking for ways to improve the SEC and not "to elevate any one person."

Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle, a vocal Pitt critic, renewed his call for the SEC chief's resignation, saying he was "amazed" at the timing of Pitt's request.

"For him, now of all times, to be asking for Cabinet level status when you've got people out there who are concerned about their livelihood, about whether they are going to survive financially, you've got businesses that are on the rocks – he's talking about Cabinet status, that he needs some elevation?" Daschle said.

"Of all the things he has to think about, it is amazing to me that this is what he is spending his time thinking about," Daschle told reporters.

"He's not qualified to serve in that position," Daschle said, adding that some of Pitt's predecessors at the market watchdog agency had been far more aggressive than Pitt without being in the Cabinet.