Monday The Senate Broke A Lockstep GOP Filibuster To Block Patricia Smith As Labor Dept. Solicitor-- Last Time?

The Democrats didn't pass much of anything with the big scary 60-vote supermajority. That's because the Senate is a conservative place-- and, modeled after Britain's House of Lords, was always meant to be-- and it is well-controlled by a bipartisan, effectively conservative majority. That would be all the Republicans plus some combination of conservatives Ben Nelson, Blanche Lincoln, Mary Landrieu, Joe Lieberman, Tom Carper, Evan Bayh, Arlen Specter, Mark Pryor, Kay Hagan, Claire McCaskill and Max Baucus. Supermajority? In your dreams!

But it was on Monday, when cloture passed 60-32, every Democrat voting to shut down the filibuster and every Republican-- minus the 8 absentees-- sticking to the party's obstructionist mania (yes, and that includes Snowe and Collins). The Democrats want to assure that President Obama's nomination of Patricia Smith as Solicitor of the Labor Dept. is confirmed. Republicans, of course, want to block it-- and everything else, probably because most of their crazed and delusional base is now persuaded that Obama is not a legitimate president.

Smith has been demonized by Big Business' GOP darlings as being too pro-working people. They are also trying to stall the confirmation of Craig Becker, nemesis of the Chamber of Commerce's lobbyist shop, to the National Labor Relations Board. He's also too pro-working people for their elitist tastes. What could be more outrageous than pro-labor people at the Dept. of Labor? They yearn for the good old days when worker-hater Elaine Chao (Miss McConnell's "wife") was in charge of turning the Bush Labor Dept. into an anti-union bastion. After all, Smith was the New York Labor Commissioner, and that must prove something they don't like. Why can't Obama just keep appointing more Wall Street hacks like Summers and Geithner and Emanuel who speak the Chamber's lingo?

Saying Smith ”may well be the most qualified person ever to hold the position of Solicitor,” AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka noted that under the leadership of Secretary Hilda Solis, "the Department of Labor is returning to its historical and proper role-- protecting the health, safety and welfare of working families. America’s workers are proud that Solicitor Smith will be joining this excellent team and continuing her years of public service on behalf of working men and women." In a letter last week to Senate members urging Smith’s confirmation, AFL-CIO Government Affairs Director William Samuel cited her “commitment to strong, fair, and effective enforcement of our workplace laws.”

Probably the main reason the Chamber has been so hysterical was summed up in the NY Times last year when they pointed out that her campaign against wage theft helped win more than $20 million in back pay for thousands of low-wage workers and that she has "developed a reputation as one of the nation’s foremost labor commissioners because of her vigorous efforts to crack down on minimum wage and overtime violations at businesses including restaurants, supermarkets, car washes and racetracks."

As for poor Becker, the far right is waging a vicious, typically anti-worker campaign against him. The Republican filibuster will probably be voted on tomorrow. [UPDATE: Democrats, as usually, caved.] The Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers are both lobbying furiously and have some of their most ridiculous shills in the Senate, like Johnny Isakson and John McCain, both catering to the right-wing base in their home states, reading their talking points.

Becker saw tough questioning from Sen. John McCain (R. Ariz.) over whether he would recuse himself from cases before the NLRB involving the Service Employees International Union, where Becker most recently worked. Becker said he would recuse himself from cases involving the Service Employees International Union for two years but stopped short of saying what he would do so in a case mentioned by McCain involving a local chapter of the union.

"If any other matter arises in which any questions can be raised or might be raised about my impartiality, I will take that very seriously," Becker said.

McCain told Becker "that's not good enough."

While Becker was approved by the committee last year in a 15-8 vote, McCain placed a hold on his nomination, keeping a Senate vote from taking place.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce in a statement Tuesday suggested that Senate Democrats are now trying to "push this nomination through" before Republican Scott Brown of Massachusetts is seated in the Senate. Once Brown is seated, Democrats will lose their 60-40 majority in the Senate, which allows them to turn back Republican filibusters.