Marathon Pundit: Obama's NLRB pick Becker already under investigation

"So I owe those unions. When their leaders call, I do my best to call them back right away." Barack Obama, The Audacity of Hope.

Union card check radical and former SEIU lawyer Craig Becker is already under investigation--and he's only been working in his new position for three months.

The entire Senate Republican caucus opposed Becker's nomination to the National Labor Relations Board, they were joined by two Democrats. Failing to receive the necessary votes, President Obama used a recess appointment to place Becker on the board.

Obama and most of the Democrats want to install the wildly-misnamed Employee Free Choice Act, which among other things will strip workers of the right to a secret-ballot election when asked to join a union. Leftist magazine In These Times wrote that Becker "helped lay the intellectual foundation for the Employee Free Choice Act."

Business, particularly small business, hates EFCA. Yesterday I wrote that Obama and his policies are making the recession worse. I should have added the appointment of Becker to the evidence I presented.

The Washington Examiner reports this morning that Becker did not recuse himself from a case he voted on involving his former employer SEIU and New York's St. Barnabas Hospital.

After his appointment, Becker signed an ethics statement, which in part reads:

I will not for a period of two years from the date of my appointment participate in any matter involving specific parties that is directly and substantially related to my former employer or former clients, including regulations and contracts.

Yet SEIU's constitution states that the national office has "jurisdiction over its affiliated bodies and all Local Unions."

House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Ranking Member Darrell Issa, (R-CA) has asked the inspector general to review the matter.

More SEIU mischief: Last week the White House revealed that its political director, Patrick Gaspard, forgot to disclose that he was paid $37,000 from the union while on the payroll of the government.

During the presidential election, Obama vowed to "paint the nation purple," which is SEIU's color.

Related posts:

Obama and his policies: Making the recession worse

White House failed to disclose SEIU payout

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