One of the most contentious debates since the election is whether or not Obama's cabinet picks are progressive enough to chart out a truly new direction for America.
There's at least one nominee, though, whose progressive credentials are beyond question: Labor Secretary-designate Hilda Solis. Throughout her career, she has stood up repeatedly for both environmental and economic justice.
It's been seven weeks since she was nominated for the job, however -- seven weeks in which more than 600,000 American workers lost their jobs -- and she still has yet to be confirmed by the Senate. Obstructionist Senate Republicans are holding her in limbo to punish Obama for his support for workers' rights and a green economy.
At this crucial moment, working men and women desperately need strong, progressive leadership at the Department of Labor. But the Senate Republicans aren't easing up. If we don't take action now, workers will suffer more weeks of drift and delay. That's not acceptable.
We need to push back to ensure that this exciting nominee -- perhaps the most vocal progressive voice in the Obama Cabinet -- doesn't get sunk by the right wing's campaign of misinformation against her.
After the jump, learn what you can do to help Free Hilda!
On December 19, then-President-Elect Obama announced that his choice for Secretary of Labor was the Representative from California's 32nd District, Hilda Solis.
It's now February 9, however, and Rep. Solis has still not been confirmed for her new job. In that time, more than 600,000 American workers lost their jobs. To turn things around, we need bold, progressive leadership today from the Labor Department -- not more weeks of obstruction and delay.
That's why we at Change to Win have set up a new Web site -- FreeHilda.com -- and are mobilizing progressives to stand up in support of a new beginning for the Department of Labor.
Why is the Solis nomination so important? Labor activists and environmentalists know Rep. Solis as a committed progressive who has worked her entire life to advance these crucial causes -- and as someone who would bring the Labor Department back to its mission of protecting workers, rather than management.
Hilda Solis is no newcomer to these issues. As a state senator, she won the JFK Library's Profile in Courage Award in 2000 for her work to bring environmental justice to minority communities. As a Member of Congress, she wrote the Green Jobs Act that was passed into law in 2007, laying the foundation for the Green Jobs movement as it's known today. And she's been an important leader in the fight to pass the Employee Free Choice Act, which would help bring the American Dream back into reach for millions of American workers.
It's no wonder, then, that her nomination was hailed by a range of progressive, environmental and labor leaders. Van Jones said the nomination had the green jobs community "jumping for joy"; Ted Kennedy called her nomination "outstanding"; Harold Meyerson lauded her willingness to put her own re-election on the line to help underpaid workers:
In 1996, when she was a back-bencher (and the first Latina) in the California State Senate, Hilda Solis did something that no other political figure I known of had done before, or has done since: She took money out of her own political account to fund a social justice campaign. Under California law, the state minimum wage is set by the gubernatorially-appointed Industrial Welfare Commission, and California’s governors for the preceding 14 years, Republicans George Deukmejian and Pete Wilson, hadn’t exactly appointed members inclined to raise that wage. So Solis dipped into her own campaign treasury and came up with the money to fund the signature-gatherers to put a minimum wage hike initiative on the California ballot. The signature gatherers gathered the signatures, the measure was placed on the ballot, it passed handily in the next election, and California’s low-wage janitors and gardeners and fry and taco cooks, and millions like them, got a significant raise.
Hilda Solis is the real thing -- an unapologetic, fighting progressive with a track record of making a difference.
All of which explains, then, why Republicans have come for her scalp. They want Obama to drop her and nominate a Labor Secretary like the ones they're used to -- the ones who spend more time worrying about life in the executive suite than life in the trenches.
They're making lots of noise to try and cover up this motivation, of course -- most recently about a $6,000 tax lien her husband's small business settled after she was nominated. But don't be fooled. As John Nichols explains in The Nation today,
Hilda Solis is not a "toxic asset" in the Obama administration's personnel portfolio...
The tax bills Daschle and Geithner were avoiding added up to more than tens of millions of American families earn in a year. These men move in worlds far removed from the grassroots experience of the citizens they purport to serve.
With Solis, it's the opposite...
[Solis' husband] Sam Sayyad owned Los Angeles County $6,468 in back taxes, which he paid up when the issue of his liens arose last week. According to Anthony Yakimowich, the chief deputy treasurer and tax collector for the county, there was no indication that Sayyad was trying to avoid paying taxes. As Yakimowich told the Los Angeles Times, small businesses often have honest disputes with the county over taxes and--especially these days--often experience financial difficulties that can lead to delays in payments.
In other words, Sayyad's experience is like that of a lot of small-business owners in a country where the good breaks invariably go to large corporations, just as the hard knocks go to the little guys and gals who try to compete with them.
Republicans in the Senate have been using penny-ante tactics like this to hold Solis' nomination up for an astonishing seven weeks -- during which more than 600,000 American workers lost their jobs.
We need a strong, progressive Labor Secretary at this moment perhaps more than we have ever needed one. But obstructionist Republicans are determined to keep that from happening -- even if the absence of leadership cripples the Labor Department during this crucial moment.
Progressives need to act now to overcome this effort. If we care about having a progressive voice in the Cabinet -- if we care about helping one of our own stay afloat in the face of a concerted GOP blitz of false information and
That's why Change to Win has set up a new Web site: FreeHilda.com. We're pulling together in one place all the truth you need to push back on the GOP lies about Hilda Solis.
But we need your help to make it work. Here's what you can do:
1) Sign the petition -- we've set up an online petition to the Senate urging them to stop dickering and confirm Hilda Solis. If you care about having a progressive voice in the Obama Cabinet, sign this petition.
2) Share the site -- send it to your friends. Digg it up. Help push back against the right-wing noise machine.
3) Endorse Hilda Solis -- if you have a blog or a dKos diary, write up an endorsement of why you think Hilda Solis would be a great Labor Secretary and post a link to it on this thread. I'll get it added to the big list of endorsements on FreeHilda.com.
4) Join the Facebook group -- Americans for Hilda Solis as Secretary of Labor has more than 1,500 members already. It needs more. If you're a Facebook member, jump over there and join the movement.
Let's not lose the bold, progressive voice of Hilda Solis in the Obama Administration through inaction or inertia. Rally with us behind her and help ensure that working men and women have a friend at the table when the Cabinet meets. Free Hilda Solis!