Nominee used labor thug/vigalantes

Washington Times:

President Obama's choice for the U.S. Labor Department's top law enforcement job created a first-of-its-kind program in New York that deputized unions and advocacy groups to visit private businesses and report wage violations to the government, an initiative that has raised concerns holding up her nomination.

M. Patricia Smith told senators vetting her appointment to be the Labor Department's solicitor that her "wage watch" pilot program in New York was created over the last year to "engage groups to help us with education" and not to let the private groups conduct labor investigations.

But internal memos obtained by Republican aides on the Senate Health Education Labor and Pensions Committee show Ms. Smith's state labor agency in New York actually referred to the union and group participants as "enforcers," The Washington Times has learned.

Businesses and some Republicans are concerned Ms. Smith's program - and the philosophy behind it - amount to an "unprecedented and unwarranted" intrusion on private business, and could empower unions to use their role in the government program to improperly pressure companies to accept contract concessions or unionization of their workforce.

Sen. Mike Enzi, the top Republican on the Senate Health Education Labor and Pensions Committee, called this week on Mr. Obama to withdraw Ms. Smith's nomination, accusing her of misleading the committee about the true nature of the "wage watch" program in New York.

"If it was her intention to mislead the Senate, then I must oppose her nomination," the Wyoming senator wrote Mr. Obama in a letter obtained by the Times. "If she unintentionally gave inaccurate statements to the Senate, then I question her ability to manage a large operation, since she does not have a clear understanding of what is taking place in her own department in New York."

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When you consider how bad Solis is as head of the department, adding another questionable member to her staff makes little sense. Obama has appointed some of the most radical people in the US to his administration and this person appears to be another such. It is time that more of the media start looking into these appointments and exposing the radical agenda of this administration.