Republicans, joined by Ben Nelson and Blanche Lincoln, killed the nomination of Craig Becker to the NLRB.
Obama's fellow Democrats in the Senate fell far short of the needed 60 votes, 52-33, to end debate and clear the way for a confirmation vote on Craig Becker, who the president wants to put on the National Labor Relations Board.
Republicans prevailed with the help of two Democratic senators from conservative states, Ben Nelson and Blanche Lincoln. Nelson, like a number of Republicans, voiced fear that the union attorney would take a "personal agenda" to the NLRB....
Becker, a 1981 graduate of Yale Law School, has served as associate general counsel for the AFL-CIO as well as for the Service Employees International Union.
Obama nominated Becker in July to the five-member NLRB, which decides cases involving workers' rights to form and join unions.
Democratic Senator Tom Harkin called Becker "one of the preeminent labor law thinkers in the United States."
A handful of Senators weren't on hand for the vote because the snowstorm in D.C. has prevented them from returning. The NLRB is essentially nonfunctional now, with only two members. Ben Nelson and Blanche Lincoln, because of their personal, anti-labor agenda, voted expressly against their president and their party.
Early today Obama threatened to use recess appointments, and it's time to make good on that threat, even if it does embarrass Lincoln and Nelson. They need to feel the heat for their obstructionism.
There's another way to punish Lincoln, in the Democratic primary.
Draft Lt. Gov. Bill Halter