This would be offensive

If this happens, then the Republicans need to make a fuss about it.

Patricia Smith, President Obama's nominee for Solicitor of Labor, appears to have lied to Congress, according to e-mails released from during her tenure as Commissioner of the New York State Labor Department.

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Senate Labor ranking member Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., has asked that Smith's nomination be withdrawn.
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Smith's actions with respect to this program seem to show she has a heavy bias toward labor and against business -- no big surprise, perhaps, considering who is appointing her. But why she would mislead or even directly lie to Congress about any of this is a bit odd. Even when given the opportunity to revise her testimony in written questions, Smith stuck to a story that does not seem consistent with the paper-trail.

On Monday, Smith will get a cloture vote in the Senate. With Scott Brown waiting at least another week to be seated in the Senate, there is a chance her nomination will slide right through.

The other day, I said that I thought that Paul Kirk shouldn't be voting now, but it wouldn't make much difference unless there were a strictly-partisan cloture vote on something, or a 51-49 where he was in the majority. Freddoso's piece seems to imply the possibility of a strictly partisan-line cloture vote. If that takes place with Paul Kirk representing the 60th vote because Scott Brown, elected two weeks ago tomorrow, hasn't been seated yet, it's a travesty, an offense to the body politic, and the Republicans should be loud about it.