The GOP struggles to restore indentured servitude and chattel slavery
Trapper John of Daily KOS describes the scene:
Tim Geithner has been confirmed as Treasury Secretary, despite his failure to pay taxes on substantial income while employed by the IMF. Tom Daschle probably would have been confirmed at HHS had he not withdrawn from the process — Senate Democrats and most Senate Republicans appeared ready to overlook both his serious tax delinquencies and his financial ties to the health care industry. Eric Holder was easily confirmed as Attorney General, despite a lot of chest-thumping from Senate Republicans over his role in the Marc Rich pardon.
But Hilda Solis — the California Congresswoman appointed by President Obama to head the Labor Department — remains in limbo, unable to get a committee referral vote until today, and likely doomed to remain in a holding pattern for some time thereafter due to the imminent threat of a GOP "hold" on a full confirmation vote.
What did Solis do to earn this opposition to her nomination? What monstrous crime or scandal was she involved in that furnishes Republican Senators with the moral authority to delay her from attending to the serious work at the Department of Labor? Could it be misogyny, or bias against Latinas, or against lowly House members?
Well, there's no crime or scandal. And there's no evidence that Solis is being discriminated against on the basis of her sex or ethnicity (though there's little doubt that she'd be confirmed by now if she were a member of the United States Senate Racquet and Social Club rather than the House). No, the Senate Republicans have a simple reason for trying to torpedo Solis's nomination: the nominee for Secretary of Labor favors labor law reform supported by a majority of Americans — the Employee Free Choice Act.
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