Minutes ago, the US Senate confirmed Hilda Solis by an 80-17 vote to be the Secretary of Labor.  This is a big victory for progressives to fight conservative obstructionism and get a real friend to the labor movement in a top position in Barack Obama’s cabinet.  It was an unnecessarily long fight, but this is a great resolution.  In addition, with Solis having authored the Green Jobs Act, she will undoubtedly be a force for making sure jobs in the alternative energy sector are good union jobs that pay a living wage.

This also means that there will shortly, perhaps as soon as tomorrow, be a vacancy in the 32nd District seat.  There are three main candidates for the seat thus far, all of whom have already begun campaigning.

Judy Chu is currently on the Board of Equalization.  While a Chinese-American running for a seat that is majority Latino, Chu has the support of the California Federation of Labor, which typically cleans up in these kinds of special elections.  That alone makes her the favorite IMO.

Gil Cedillo is a State Senator in the adjoining district, and so he represents very few of these constituents.  He has been strong on issues around immigration in particular, and will certainly be formidable in this race.

Emanuel Pleitez worked in the Obama transition team on the Treasury Department.  The fact that Treasury has practically no senior officers staffing it save for Tim Geithner, over a month after the inauguration, doesn’t really speak well to Pleitez’ transition capabilities.  But he apparently has the most robust campaign apparatus in the district thus far (with 17 volunteer full-time staff members), and he was born and raised in the district.

We invite every single one of them to interact with us on Calitics.

The most likely scenario is that either the primary or the general election gets folded into the May 19 special election.  Gov. Schwarzenegger has 14 calendar days to set the schedule.

It was a long struggle with a somewhat anti-climactic resolution, but Hilda Solis was approved by the Senate HELP Committee (Health, Education, Labor and Pensions) on a voice vote.  Today over 20,000 petition signatures were delivered to the leaders of the HELP Committee by SEIU, UFW, UFCW, Change to Win and the Courage Campaign, and those voices were heard.

Now the confirmation moves to the full Senate for a vote, where it will hopefully be approved in short order.  Sometimes we win one.

After waiting and waiting, labor groups are finally demanding that Hilda Solis be confirmed as the Secretary of Labor.  Andy Stern of the SEIU made a short video:

Their action page has a petition.

And this is just the beginning:

“Enough is enough, the gloves are coming off on Friday,” said one official with the AFL-CIO, outraged over the delays. “Labor, women’s groups, Hispanic groups are opening fire. We worked with Republicans in good faith. Hilda Solis has answered all their questions but they continue to oppose her for partisan ideological reasons.”

With Solis’s nomination stalled again on Thursday after revelations that her husband had just settled $6,400 in tax leins against his business, unions are no longer willing to hold their breath for the sake of fewer dramatics.

“Our full efforts are being mobilized to fight back,” the union official said. “Earned media and field campaign to generate calls, letters, and emails coming tomorrow. Depending on how things move paid media will be added on top of these efforts.”

Good to see.  Progressive groups like MoveOn should get Hilda’s back, too.

UPDATE: Our old friend Hans von Spakovsky, vote suppressor extraordinaire, is writing anti-Solis screeds in places like The Weekly Standard.

UPDATE II: MoveOn jumps in with a letter to the editor tool.

Hilda Solis’s confirmation in the Senate HELP Committee was abruptly cancelled today after a report surfaced about her husband paying $6,400 to remove a tax lien on his business.

The report, by USA Today, came just before the Senate’s Health Education Labor and Pensions Committee was slated to meet to consider Solis’s nomination, which had been delayed by questions over her role on the board of the pro-labor organization American Rights at Work. A source said that committee members did not learn about the tax issue until today.

“Today’s executive session was postponed to allow members additional time to review the documentation submitted in support of Representative Solis’s nomination to serve in the important position of Labor Secretary,” read a joint statement issued by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), the panel’s chairman, and Mike Enzi (Wyoming), the committee’s ranking Republican. “There are no holds on her nomination and members on both sides of the aisle remain committed to giving her nomination the fair and thorough consideration that she deserves. We will continue to work together to move this nomination forward as soon as possible.”

No new date has been set for the hearing. The disclosure about Solis’s husband comes after tax problems caused trouble for three of Obama’s top appointees, leading two of them — HHS-nominee Tom Daschle and Nancy Killefer, who was to be chief performance officer — to withdraw.

Senate Republicans have been slow-walking this nomination for weeks, and this revelation gave them another reason to do so.  To be clear, we’re talking about her husband’s business.  Given that she’s in Congress and is in Washington most of the time, I doubt very highly that she has anything to do with it.  In addition, by paying the taxes, Solis and her entire family are adhering to Obama’s ethical standards, not subverting them.

So this is the latest in a months-long obstructionism.  The LA Times reported today that some GOP members were trying to put a gag order on Solis:

Underscoring the bitter debate over a proposal to make it easier for workers to form unions, Republican senators are suggesting that President Obama’s pick for Labor secretary must recuse herself from lobbying for the bill’s passage.

In a written exchange with Solis, Republican senators indicated they are wary of her ties to a tax-exempt group dedicated to helping workers unionize […]

Solis’ Cabinet nomination is in the crossfire. She was a co-sponsor of the bill in 2007 and has served for the last four years on the board of American Rights at Work. Solis receives no salary as a board member or treasurer […]

In their questionnaire, the senators noted that American Rights at Work has lobbied for passage of the bill. They asked Solis whether she would seek a waiver from the Obama administration or avoid any role in passing the legislation.

Solis replied that she does not need a waiver and has no intention of stepping back. She said she was only a member of Congress exercising her powers.

“I am not a registered lobbyist, nor do I in any way meet the statutory requirements for registration as a lobbyist,” she wrote.

The American Rights at Work thing is a complete red herring.  She was a representative figure for those who supported Employee Free Choice in Congress.  She is not a lobbyist.  She supported a bill.  And so denying her free-speech rights seems ridiculous to the extreme.

I don’t know if a family member’s tax issue is enough to sink this nomination (like the last Labor Secretary’s spouse, one Mitch McConnell, has no ethical issues to speak of), but I for one think Solis should be confirmed.  And as for the Employee Free Choice Act, the battle for a fair workplace goes on.  Thousands of people are marching in the streets of Los Angeles today in support of free choice.

So after huffing and puffing for weeks, Arlen Specter got what he wanted out of the Eric Holder nomination hearings (his main potential primary opponent declined to run against him) and decided to back the Attorney General nominee.  After all the talk of principle and judgment, it just took improved electoral prospects for Specter to have a change of heart.  Funny how that goes.

But there’s another nominee that is languishing, perhaps the only true progressive in Obama’s cabinet, and many of us would like to know why.  Greg Sargent at his new digs reports on Hilda Solis’ nomination:

Why hasn’t Hilda Solis been confirmed as Labor Secretary yet, and why haven’t we heard from the unions or from the Obama administration about it?

Some top operatives in the labor movement are frustrated with the Obama administration for not giving them the go-ahead to publicly target Republicans who appear to be stalling Solis’ confirmation, people in the labor movement familiar with the situation tell me.

The silence from Obama aides on Solis is ominous to some labor officials, because they view the Republican efforts to hold up Solis as a first shot in the larger coming war over the Employee Free Choice Act, a top labor priority. Some labor officials worry that the Obama administration’s refusal to make an issue of the hold-up on Solis is a sign that the Obama team won’t act aggressively on Employee Free Choice.

“The anonymous hold on Solis is a clear proxy fight for Employee Free Choice,” says a top operative at a prominent union. “And from the Obama Adminisitration … crickets.”

over…

Solis’ confirmation hearing was January 9 (you can track cabinet nominees here).  If anyone from the Obama team or in the entire Democratic Party has said two words about her since then, I’ve missed it.  Her position on the Employee Free Choice Act is well-known (she voted for it last year, after all) and so the talking point that she wasn’t “forthcoming” in her hearing is bogus.  Labor is apparently willing to make a lot of noise about this, but want a go-ahead from the Administration, according to Sargent.

“People are just frustrated because they are not getting a clear signal of when and where to fight,” the official says, though he adds that a second school of thought within labor holds that there’s nothing to worry about, and that labor should be “comfortable” with Obama’s “timing on the Solis nomination.”

Still, some in the labor movement were already worried about the administration’s commitment to acting on Employee Free Choice in his first year, as Sam Stein recently reported. And for these people, the administration’s silence on Solis is making it worse.

(Actually, the UFCW is demanding confirmation.  Good for them.)

If this is more of that post-partisanship and Obama’s team not wanting to tear down bridges to the business community though “divisiveness,” consider that those same businesses have no problem being divisive on their end.

Three days after receiving $25 billion in federal bailout funds, Bank of America Corp. hosted a conference call with conservative activists and business officials to organize opposition to the U.S. labor community’s top legislative priority.

Participants on the October 17 call — including at least one representative from another bailout recipient, AIG — were urged to persuade their clients to send “large contributions” to groups working against the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), as well as to vulnerable Senate Republicans, who could help block passage of the bill.

Bernie Marcus, the charismatic co-founder of Home Depot, led the call along with Rick Berman, an aggressive EFCA opponent and founder of the Center for Union Facts. Over the course of an hour, the two framed the legislation as an existential threat to American capitalism, or worse.

“This is the demise of a civilization,” said Marcus. “This is how a civilization disappears. I am sitting here as an elder statesman and I’m watching this happen and I don’t believe it.” […]

“This bill may be one of the worst things I have ever seen in my life,” he said, explaining that he could have been on “a 350-foot boat out in the Mediterranean,” but felt it was more important to engage on this fight. “It is incredible to me that anybody could have the chutzpah to try and pass this bill in this election year, especially when we have an economy that is a disaster, a total absolute disaster.”

Remember that “decline of civilization” line the next time you need some hardware and have a choice of purchasing options.

Corporate titans are going to fight for their interests.  We can’t wait for others to fight for ours.  Yesterday thereisnospoon launched a citizen lobbying campaign to find out who is holding up Solis’ nomination.  He has numbers for a bunch of Republicans, but the calls should really go to Harry Reid, who had no problem ignoring Senate holds last year when Chris Dodd was threatening them.  Another good phone call would be to the White House switchboard, so Mr. 78% can expend a smidge of political capital to get his own nominee confirmed.  Hilda Solis is completely qualified to be Labor Secretary, and in this economic climate the Labor Department needs to be running at full speed.

I’m not really much for forcible identity politics, but some Latino leaders are making noises that a Hispanic ought to replace Bill Richardson (who withdrew his nomination) as the Secretary of Commerce, making the argument that the Latino population must maintain its representation in the Administration.  I’d prefer the best man or woman for the job, but this is a case where there already is a Hispanic who Obama considered for a separate cabinet appointment who may be able to be persuaded into accepting this one.  That would be Xavier Becerra.

An Obama transition team source said a veteran California congressman, Xavier Becerra, has emerged as the leading congressional candidate to replace Richardson, the Hispanic governor of New Mexico, as President-elect Barack Obama’s choice for a job that will include overseeing the 2010 U.S. Census.

“Even though he turned down the trade representative slot, Becerra is not only Hispanic, but he has the skill, talent and experience to do the Commerce job,” said the source, who was not authorized to speak for the president-elect.

“Xavier’s name has gone to the top of the list of potential replacements in part because he is a member of the House leadership, he is well liked, he has very good credentials, and, of course, he was an early Obama backer,” the source said.

It’s all speculative at the moment, but I wouldn’t be surprised if this happened.  Becerra wanted a bigger role in the Administration than trade representative, and certainly the Commerce Department would give him a better opportunity to shape White House policy.

Obviously this would create another special election in an adjoining district to incoming Labor Secretary Hilda Solis’ CA-32.  Los Angeles County from Hollywood to points east would be ground zero for political wrangling this spring.

UPDATE: Becerra’s spokeswoman says he’s not interested.

Xavier Becerra is not considering an appointment to become Secretary of Commerce and will remain in the House, his spokeswoman told Politico.

“The Congressman has already expressed that he is staying in Congress and looks forward to working with the Obama Administration from his position as House Democratic Vice Chair,” said Fabiola Rodriguez.

One election is over, the next one is coming ever closer with one Presidential hopeful (or wannabe) announcing after another.

You may say it’s way too premature to discuss a possible Democratic cabinet with more than two years to go. But hey: we have a tough and largely successful election behind us. Let’s just have a little fun for now.

If you enjoy this kinda stuff then follow be below the fold.

The following is my dream cabinet for 2009. While it is a “dream” in so many senses of the word there are a few tough choices and compromises involved. I first had to decide who I wanted to win and who could win the Presidency. Some of the cabinet choices are related to that, most are not. My choice for President is in no way a judgment about other candidates. You will find a couple of other contenders as members of my dream cabinet. If you see another person winning the Presidency write a comment and tell us how that would impact some cabinet choices.

You will also notice something else. Since this is a dream cabinet, it is a cabinet of diversity, one reflecting the current make-up of the United States. There are 22 people listed below. President, VP, 15 Cabinet Secretaries plus 5 people with Cabinet rank. Of these half are women. You say this is impossible? Just remember that relatively conservative and Catholic Spain has a center-left government with half the cabinet being women. I also considered ethnic diversity. There a 4 African Americans, 3 Hispanic Americans, 2 Italian Americans and 1 Asian American and 1 Armenian American.

Here’s my 2009 dream cabinet:

President – Barack Obama

Yeah, I think he will run, and yeah, I think he can win the primary (because he’ll go with momentum out of Nevada and South Carolina) and with the right campaign and the right choice for VP (see below) he can win the general election. I think my choices below could be a little more realistic with a President Obama since I doubt that he would stuff his cabinet with a bunch of white men. Wikipedia

Vice President – Anthony Zinni

General Zinni, that is. Yeah, he might not be the most liberal candidate out there but he could balance out the ticket very well. Obama will need a strong VP but one without any personal ambitions. I would have liked a woman on the ticket but unfortunately I seriously doubt the voters are ready for a ticket without any white men on it. Zinni’s position on the Iraq war is in sync with Obama’s – they were both against it. Zinni retired in 2000. This year he got behind VA Senate candidate Jim Webb. Zinni’s also from Virginia and with him on the ticket we can hold those voters concerned about Obama’s inexperience (especially in foreign affairs) and have a couple of states in play like Virgnia. Wikipedia

Sec. of Agriculture – Patty Judge

Judge has been Secretary of Agriculture of Iowa since 1998. This year she ran as Chet Culver’s running mate and will take office as Lt.Gov in January. Wikipedia

Sec. of Commerce – Charlene Barshefsky

Barshefsky was the United States Trade Representative in Clinton’s second term. Wikipedia

Sec. of Defense – Jack Reed

Someone with a certain amount of respect needs to clean up the mess created by Rummy & Co in Iraq and elsewhere. This is a tough and unthankful job. I think Senator Reed (Rhode Island) can do it. He’s on the Senate Armed Services Committee and was a Captain when he left the Army. He attended the US Military Academy at West Point. Wikipedia

Sec. of Education – Anna Eshoo

Eshoo is an Armenian American. Born in Connecticut she serves California’s 14th District (Silicon Valley) in Congress since 1993. She’s a strong supporter of the Gay Rights movement. In Congress she co-sponsored the “College Opportunity for All Act” and the “10,000 Teachers, 10 Million Minds Science and Math Scholarship Act” and led the development of the Democrat’s Innovation Agenda in which education plays a central role. Wikipedia

Sec. of Energy – Hilda Solis

Solis is a member of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce and has been the Ranking Member on the Subcommittee on the Environment and Hazardous Materials. She represents California’s 32nd District since 2001. Previously she served in the CA Assembly and Senate and in the White House Office of Hispanic Affairs and the OMB. Wikipedia

Sec. of Health & Human Services – John Kitzhaber

Dr. John Kitzhaber, MD, served as Governor of Oregon from 1995-2003. During his term in office (and previously as President of the Oregon Senate) health care issues were always on the top of his list. He was instrumental in creating the Oregon Health Plan. After leaving office he has kept on working to find solutions to achieve affordable health care for all. Wikipedia

Sec. of Homeland Security – Carolyn Maloney

Maloney represents New York’s 14th District in Congress since 1993. Representing parts of New York City she has been involved in Homeland Security issues ever since the attacks of September 11, 2001. She is chair of the Democratic Task Force on Homeland Security. Wikipedia

Sec. of Housing and Urban Development – Shirley Franklin

Shirley Franklin is the mayor of Atlanta and was the first black woman to be elected mayor of a major Southern city in 2001. Shirley has been listed as one of the five best mayors in America by Time Magazine. Wikipedia

Sec. of the Interior – Tony Knowles

Tony Knowles career as an elected official is probably over after losing the Governor’s race this year and the Senate race two years ago. Nevertheless, I believe him to be a good choice to head the Dep. of the Interior which is traditionally run by politicians from western states. Wikipedia

Sec. of Labor – John Edwards

John Edwards would probably make a good President. That said, should he not win the nomination, I seriously doubt he’d want to be the running mate again. He has made labor issues an integral part of his campaign and could be a real asset in anyone’s cabinet as Labor Secretary. Wikipedia

Sec. of State – Bill Richardson

Governor Richardson has previously been Secretary of Energy and Ambassador at the UN in the Clinton Administration. Should he not wind up on the ticket he would make an excellent Secretary of State. He would also be the first Hispanic American in this position. Wikipedia

Sec. of Transportation – Gary Locke

Locke was Gov of Washington from 1997-2005 and was the first Chinese American Governor in the US. As so many Governors he could serve in several positions, Sec. of Transportation being one of them. Wikipedia

Sec. of the Treasury – Bill Bradley

The former Presidential candidate is a sentimental favourite of mine. His wife Ernestine Schland would have been one awesome First Lady. The former Senator cares deeply about tax reform. Whether or not his proposals would be a good solution is debatable. Nevertheless, someone needs to clean up after the Bush administration. Wikipedia

Sec. of Veteran Affairs – Max Cleland

Who else, really? Wikipedia

Attorney General – Patricia Madrid

Madrid is the current Attorney General of New Mexico. She chose to run for Congress this year and unfortunately lost against Heather Wilson. Should she run and lose again in 08 or chose not to run, she would make a great choice to head the Justice Dept. Wikipedia

Other cabinet level positions:

Head of the EPA – Tammy Baldwin

The Environmental Protection Agency is more important than ever. Someone who’s knowledgable and passionate about environmental issues like Tammy Baldwin would be a terrific choice. As a member of the House Energy and Commerce committee she strongly opposes drilling in ANWR. Wikipedia

Ambassador to the UN – Susan Rice

Susan Rice was Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs under Madeleine Albright. She would be the first African American Woman in this job. Wikipedia

US Trade Rep – Ronnie Musgrove

Musgrove was Governor of Mississippi from 2000-2004. During that time he managed to get Nissan to build a plant in his state. He’d probably be a good trade rep for the entire United States as well. Wikipedia

Head of the OMB – Rosa DeLauro

DeLauro represents Connecticut’s 3rd CD since 1991. She has attended the London School of Economics and is a member of the House Appropriations and Budget Committees. Wikipedia

WH Chief of Staff – Donna Brazile

No, a black President doesn’t necessarily need a black Chief of Staff. That said any Democratic President could use a CoS of the caliber of Donna Brazile. She was Al Gore’s campaign manager in 2000 and might have become his Chief of Staff then. It’s likely that she will play a major role in the 2008 Democratic presidential campaign, no matter who the nominee is. Wikipedia

This is it. What are your thoughts? Who would you like to see in what position? Comment away.

cross posted from Turn Tahoe Blue