The anonymous blocking of hearings by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee on Hilda Solis's nomination for Labor Secretary has now stretched out so long that both The New York Times and the Pasadena Star-News have weighed in with editorials today urging that she be confirmed forthwith.
In its blogatorial, "Hilda! Hilda! Hilda!" the Times states:
But for any senators to claim that they can’t make up their minds until they have a better answer directly from Ms. Solis, or from the stacks of written questions she must now complete as if doing penance, is ridiculous.
Ms. Solis voted for the union organizing bill when it passed the House in 2007. Senate Republicans prevented the bill from coming to a vote that same year. But then-Senator Obama voted in favor of bringing it to the Senate floor and he supported it during the campaign.
It’s safe to assume that Mr. Obama and Ms. Solis support unions. And assuming that Mr. Obama’s campaign promise is enacted into law, it will become easier than it has been for workers to form unions.
And that would be a good thing, because strong labor unions help to push wages up by bargaining for more of the pie to go for workers’ wages, rather than for bonuses and profits for executives and shareholders.
Indeed, her views and background are no secret. A feminist and environmentalist, she comes from a union family, and has always been a clarion voice for workers. She authored the Green Jobs Act of 2007. She pressed for an increase in the minimum wage.
As many people have noted, Solis could very well be to the Obama administration what Labor Secretary Frances Perkins was to the FDR administration. Perkins, the first woman ever appointed to the Cabinet, and one of the two most liberal members of Roosevelt's inner circle, was one of the key insiders pressing for labor rights and other best elements of the New Deal. Indeed, without her, it's doubtful that FDR would have pushed in the direction he did on many issues.
It could be likewise with Solis. Which, of course, is why Republicans would dearly like to squelch her nomination. She is arguably the most progressive of Obama's Cabinet picks and, as such, poses some perils for the interests that motivate Republicans with money and ideology. Since unemployment rates are going up in Republican Senators' states, too, logic would indicate that they should be keen on a Labor Secretary dedicated to rebuilding the economy with green jobs. And they probably would be as long as those jobs weren't unionized. And as long as the "green" part didn't mean any new regulations.
Come Friday, it will be three weeks since Solis first spoke to Senators. Holding up the hearings on her nomination is obstructionism, pure and simple. It's something Democrats in the House and Senate need to remember the next time some gasbag Republican whines about the lack of a bipartisan spirit.