Posted on 02/04/2010 3:31:15 PM PST by truthandlife
Earlier this week, I noted that Democrats were frantically trying do some special favors for labor unions before Scott Brown was seated and Democrats lost their supermajority in the Senate. They succeeded in getting Patricia Smith, the Obama administration's nominee for Solicitor of Labor, through a party-line cloture vote, even though it's entirely likely she lied in her Senate testimony about a program she was involved in as New York's labor commissioner that unjustly benefited unions.
However, with Scott Brown being seated today and Democrats losing their supermajority, Big Labor may well have just seen their secret weapon shot down.
More than Smith, Big Labor had a lot riding on the nomination of Craig Becker to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). Becker, a lawyer for the AFL-CIO and the SEIU, authored a paper as a law professor about how the NLRB could be used to enact a sweeping overhaul of labor laws that would benefit unions, and all without congressional approval.
Becker dismissed questions about the paper saying he would be "practical" while serving on the NLRB. However, that seems dubious given how hard labor leaders were pushing his nomination. And Becker had already authored one of Obama's executive orders dealing with labor regulations. Not surprisingly, the executive order benefited unions.
But now that Brown has been seated, it's very probable that his nomination will be filibustered. After being unable to pass card check legislation and unhappy with the Democrats' proposed "cadillac tax" in health care legislation, Big Labor is going ballistic about the likely failure of Becker's nomination. According to Sam Stein at the Huffington Post, labor leaders are "fuming":
But the recriminations over granting Brown an early start date are already flying. Becker's nomination to the head of the NLRB was supposed to be considered while Democrats still had 60 votes. Party leadership had planned to hold a confirmation vote this week, multiple sources tell the Huffington Post.
But a series of delays, engineered primarily by Sen. John McCain (R-Ari.), pushed consideration back. And as things stand now, a full Senate vote on Becker will not take place before Brown is granted a vote -- leaving the nomination either completely dead or in deep peril.
"Democrats were outmaneuvered yet again," emailed a labor source who was granted anonymity to speak freely. "I'm used to us caving, but they didn't even [try to delay Brown's seating]. They just hit the mat.
"I love how we cave to the Republicans and won't seat our Senator, [Al] Franken. Then we reverse cave and seat their senator. I mean forget the analogy of one is playing checkers and the other playing chess. It's like one is playing chess while the other is sitting there picking their nose."
Filthy Rats......rotten to the core!
Get a real job!
Wasn’t Franken’s seat contested? Where Brown’s was NOT! Brown should have been seated the VERY next day after the election!
FUBL
To be fair, Brown was actually elected.
Excellent news that Becker is shot down and labor is ballistic.
SEIU should have put more of their out-of-state stooges and flunkies into the voting booths on election day.
I love it when big labor fumes. Will love it even more when they are fumigated.
Ummm..Franken LOST the election to start off with, and was still behind in the vote count for months, until Franken produced “votes” from thin air to finally move ahead.
By contrast, Scott Brown won by a solid 5% margin right from the get go, and his opponent conceded within hours of the polls closing.
Totally different circumstances.
I am glad that the union can admit that Franken is their senator and here I thought that seat was supposed to belong to the people. Oops, that just the one in Mass I guess.
Even a broken clock is right two times a day.
What happened? I thought they were to push for the vote this morning? How did McCain manage to delay the vote for long, when the Dim had 60 votes?
^__^
give credit where credit is due..John Mccain is to thank according to the article..but that said..
now back to bashing John Mccain..I want that RINO out.
Really. Totally the point. If that’s the sort of argument they have its no wonder they lose all the battles.
What’s more fun than whining Marxists? NOTHING!!!
Anything that makes the labor union thugs “fume” tends to make me smile.
Hey Dumbocrats....remind me again how it’s big Corporations that are going to stifle freedom and elections....
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