[Pen-l] Solis Solo?

["Jim Devine" <jdevine03@xxxxxxxxx>]

[from TPM café]]

Solis at Labor- A Symbol of Labor's Power

By [[pen-l almunus]] Nathan Newman - December 19, 2008, 12:11PM

Obama's nomination of Hilda Solis to be Labor Secretary was designed
to please pro-labor supporters given her strong pro-labor record.
Whether Obama meant her nomination to deliver a message, she is a
special symbol of the power labor has been willing to exercise within
the Democratic Party to hold candidates accountable. As Harold
Meyerson recounts in the LA Times:

<quote>
And in 2000, she did something else that career politicians just don't
do: She challenged an entrenched incumbent from her own party for his
congressional seat. Marty Martinez, a nine-term incumbent who thought
he was cruising to his 10th, was much more conservative than his
constituents. He had voted for NAFTA, backed the extension of the 710
Freeway through South Pasadena and opposed abortion rights.

Against the wishes of the party's national legislative leaders, who
never like to see their members challenged, Solis ran against Martinez
and, with the assistance of the L.A. labor movement, defeated him by a
stunning 69% to 31%.
<end quote>

Her election put all Democrats on notice that labor would not give
incumbents a pass if they voted against labor [at least in pro-labor
districts, which seem few and far between these days]. Some would
argue that labor hasn't supported enough Solis-style challengers, but
there is little question that putting her at the Labor Department will
help reinforce the message that labor will hold Representatives and
Senators accountable for their votes.

[[If she's alone at Labor, how much can she do, especially when
organized labor is so disorganized outside of the government sector??
She is just one of Obama's cabinet of rivals. As SLATE writes:

>The Wall Street Journal [reports] that President-elect Barack Obama will nominate Rep. Hilda Solis of California, a free-trade skeptic, as his labor secretary and Ron Kirk, a champion of free trade, as his trade representative. The picks illustrate how the Democratic Party is split in the battle over free trade.<

By the way, "free trade skeptic" seems an ideological term, since I'd
guess that Solis isn't opposed to "free trade" as much as to
international mobility of capital, abolition of OSHA, and the like.]]
-- 
Jim Devine / "Segui il tuo corso, e lascia dir le genti." (Go your own
way and let people talk.) -- Karl, paraphrasing Dante.
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