Hilda Solis Approved by Senate Panel

Posted by Jane Hamsher, Firedoglake at 4:15 PM on February 11, 2009.

The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee cleared Hilda Solis' nomination as Secretary of Labor today. The vote by the entire Senate will probably happen this week.

Only two Republicans voted against her -- Pat Roberts and Tom Coburn. Even though Mike Enzi made a stink and said that she was not qualified to be Secretary of Labor because she supported labor, he ultimately voted for her.

Mike Hall of the AFL-CIO blog:

After eight years of the Bush administration's Department of Labor under Elaine Chao—trashing workers' rights, weakening workplace safety rules, ignoring wage and hour violations and siding with Big Business at about every juncture—the idea of a labor secretary siding with workers must be terrifying to some.

Last week I spoke with Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention, who recommended Sarah Palin for the VP slot on the McCain ticket. He said that the GOP was the natural home of socially conservative Hispanics. That pitch is probably going to be a lot more successful if they don't block the only Hispanic woman nominated to a cabinet position because her mechanic husband didn't pay some business taxes, especially when John McCain defaulting on the property taxes for four years on one of his many homes didn't seem to trouble them too much. 

Tagged as: republicans, gop, john mccain, hispanic, sarah palin, hilda solis, richard land of the south, secretary of labor

Jane Hamsher is the founder of FireDogLake. Her work has also appeared on the Huffington Post, Alternet and The American Prospect.