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THE GOP’S WAR ON SOLIS.
Republican senators have a modest proposal for Hilda Solis: that if she’s confirmed as Labor Secretary, she recuse herself from any advocacy for the Employee Free Choice Act.
That’s quite the suggestion. Rather like asking Robert Gates not to advocate for the armed forces, or Judd Gregg not to champion American business, or President Obama’s environmental picks not to support stricter fuel-efficiency standards. But then, Republicans’ opposition to unions is close to clinically pathological.
Solis’s support for EFCA isn’t exactly a secret. She co-sponsored the bill when it passed the House in 2007. Nor is she deviating from administration policy in backing it, since Obama pledged to support the bill during his presidential campaign.
The basis of the GOP senators’ argument that Solis can’t advocate for EFCA is the fact that she is the unpaid treasurer of American Rights at Work, a worker-advocacy group that supports EFCA, and as such, she should be barred from any involvement in the EFCA fight because she was a lobbyist. But this argument stretches the definition of lobbyist beyond all elasticity. Solis was serving in a volunteer capacity for a group that was backing legislation that she co-sponsored as a member of Congress. If that constitutes lobbying, then K Street would not even exist, since lobbying jobs wouldn’t pay. Clearly, this is purely an attempt to launch a pre-emptive strike against EFCA.
Solis’ confirmation vote by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee was further held up yesterday by a USA Today report that her husband paid $6,400 to settle outstanding tax liens against his business, which is an East Los Angeles auto repair shop. There’s no evidence that Solis had anything to do with her husband’s business taxes. Not to mention that in an administration filled with Ivy League alums and Robert Rubin protégés, and that’s correspondingly light on officials who have any contact with blue-collar America, the idea that the Labor Secretary is married to a guy with an auto repair shop is comforting in itself.
--Harold Meyerson
COMMENTS (10)
Maybe it's all for the best. After all, if John Sweeney can't answer a question about it, then maybe it's something she should drop.
Posted by: 24AheadDotCom | February 6, 2009 12:38 PM
I don't know, Harold. I could have put up with most of this. But this, indubitably, goes over the line:
"Records show Sayyad had two liens, from 1994 and 1996, for $1,255 in unpaid state sales taxes. The remaining two, from 1994 and 1995, are for $786 in unpaid county health and safety fees."
For me, that does it: she should not just be rejected but also scorned and excommunicated from the Village. Senator Isakson is clearly correct to give this matter MUCH further consideration and deliberation. I have no doubt that this news will make the American people, en masse, storm the Beltway, armed with pitchforks. Enough is enough!!
Posted by: Wendell | February 6, 2009 5:06 PM
Have Solis and her husband released all their tax records? What about her husband’s employment practices? How many illegals has he hired, that is, how many Americans has he robbed of their livelihoods?
The Obama team...crooks and cronies and incompetent phonies.
Posted by: Tired of Obi Already | February 6, 2009 5:09 PM
"if she’s confirmed as Labor Secretary, she recuse herself from any advocacy for the Employee Free Choice Act."
That seems a little strange. EFCA will probably be passed before she's confirmed. It already has the votes now. Her confirmation doesn't. And the Republicans will probably delay her confirmation for another year, well after EFCA is law. So what's the point of this?
Posted by: fostert | February 6, 2009 5:21 PM
the first three commenters are joking, right?
Posted by: karen marie | February 6, 2009 7:10 PM
I guess I need lessons in writing better snark. Wanna help with the tutorial, karen marie?
I can't speak for the other two of the first 3 musketeers, but I, for one, was trying to show the utter absurdity of the opposition to her.
FWIW, I am a management-side labor lawyer.
Posted by: Wendell | February 6, 2009 9:07 PM
And the Republicans will probably delay her confirmation for another year, well after EFCA is law.
Huh? What are you talking about? You really think there won't be a Secretary of Labor for a year?
Posted by: John | February 6, 2009 9:50 PM
Karen:
#1 is serious.
#2 is probably joking.
#3 is unknown. A clever and flamboyant troll, or a too subtle comedian? Who knows.
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