Senate Confirms (Billionaire) Penny Pritzker to Be Commerce Secretary, 97 to 1

[Fire Walk With Me]

http://www.theatlanticwire.com/politics/2013/06/senate-confirms-penny-pritzker-be-commerce-secretary-97-1/66589/

The Senate confirmed Penny Pritzker to be President Obama's Commerce Secretary on Tuesday by a vote of 97 to 1 — even though her nomination was supposed to be excitingly controversial. Instead, it was a rare moment of boring bipartisan cooperation.

Pritzker was an early supporter of Obama's, but her business and financial records made her the Democratic version of Mitt Romney. Pritzker is an heir to the Hyatt Hotel fortune, had faced disputes with unions over hotel working conditions, and had accounts in the Cayman Islands. She accidentally understated her income by $80 million.

But in her confirmation hearing, Republicans weren't interested in her finances or her famous family. Instead, Politico's Tarini Parti reported, the hearings were "drama free." President Obama, in a statement, praised the "bipartisan action" in Congress.

(No further text but many links are at the web page. All hail the plutonomy!)



Bernie Sanders ‏@SenSanders

Ms. Pritzker served on the board of one of the most anti-worker hotel chains in this country.
http://www.sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/news/?id=d80efb92-a8e0-44b7-b5c7-efad8121f732 …

#Pritzker @HyattPR

[Apophis]

1. Great. Another billionaire.

[DURHAM D]

2. A sad day for Democrats.

ETA: Thank you Senator Sanders for your NO vote.

[Hydra]

3. Bipartisanship!~

As long as we're getting screwed, they have nothing to argue about.

[Catherina]

4. A government of representation by the people, for the people

Tone deaf and deliberately so. There's no excuse for this.

[KoKo]

7. There's no doubt now....

What we are up against in this country.

I don't know how any Democrat can find a positive thing about this....or that any Democrats here could find an excuse for Pritzger's appointment to this or any other position in the Obama Administration.

[KoKo]

5. My WORST fears confirmed.

Bad move for him.

[liberal_at_heart]

6. How many bad picks does that make for Obama? Dozens, maybe.

[alsame]

8. Dem version of Romney indeed. nt

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

9. $$ Ka-ching! $$

"It could probably be shown by facts and figures that there is no distinctly native American criminal class except Congress." Mark Twain

[n2doc]

10. She is one of the 0.01%ers

Of course she would be confirmed. She probably donated to all of their campaigns:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023090100

[KamaAina]

16. She was obscure state Sen. Obama's original sugar mommy

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=3094609

[KoKo]

21. I Love It...."Sugar Mommy"...Billionaire and she's SO CUTE!

Well said... Can we get a Meme. She's also a Wall Street "Sugar Mommy!" Makes it a Double Duo!

[forestpath]

11. The 1 percent stick together.

[badtoworse]

12. Why would we not want a successful, experienced business leader in this position?

Who better to improve the climate for business and private sector hiring? Should we have a burger flipper or a ditch digger leading Commerce?

[Cal Carpenter]

15. Successful and experienced at amassing obscene wealth while crushing workers...

Yeah, that's fucking awesome, innit?

I would MUCH prefer a ditch digger in such a position, frankly, it could balance out how the working class (aka almost everyone) has gotten economically fucked over the last few decades.

[badtoworse]

17. Sounds like the plot for a good comedy.

I'd love to listen in on a meeting between the ditch digger and someone like Jeff Immelt or Bill Gates.

[liberal_at_heart]

29. I know I'd much rather have a small business owner in that position.

It's one thing to run a small business and know how to stock inventory, advertise, and run profit and loss reports. It's another to run a corporation, use inferior products, overcharge customers, and pay employees as little as humanly possilbe. It's like they want to get 100% profit with 0% investment. I want to know what professor in what business school is teaching them this crap?

[Cal Carpenter]

39. Hmmm, there is always a segment of the regular folks

that adopts the affectations of the elite, I've never understood that. So condescending.

It may be comedic if it didn't involve hardworking people unable to make a living wage.

Bill Gates can be your hero. I'll be down here with the ditch diggers.

[badtoworse]

40. Condescending? How about ridiculous?

Preferring a ditch digger to a successful and wealthy business person as Secretary of Commerce wasn't my idea, but I'll stand by my assertion that it's ridiculous. Pointing that out is not condescension.

We need a Commerce Secretary who is serious about making the US an attractive place to do business. If we could somehow attract companies to bring some of the maufacturing jobs we've lost, a lot of those hardworking people might be able to find decent jobs. The lack of those jobs is is the biggest problem we have in this country today and I would expect the Commerce Secretary to lead the effort to fix it. I would also expect that to be effective, a Commerce Secretary should have experience successfully managing a large business. That person would need to speak the same language as senior executives in Fortune 500 companies and understand what will drive their decisions on business expansion. As a practical matter, such a person is most likely to be wealthy and part of the 1%

I have no problem with the Commerce Secretary being wealthy as long as that person is effective. The real shame would be if Pritzker turns out to be a another do nothing Secretary who ignores the real business problems we have and does nothing to improve the business climate here.

[Cal Carpenter]

44. What is ridiculous is that you feel the need to explain yourself

when it is very clear where you stand.

[badtoworse]

45. At least I'm taking a position on it.

When it comes to private sector hiring in the US, there is precious little I see posted here that might actually make the situation better.

[Hydra]

19. /fail

There are plenty of better people the President could have picked (not like we've never heard that story, huh?), but he repaid a favor to someone who is part of the problem, economically speaking.

By all means, pretend there were no other valid choices. The Empire appreciates your support.

[KoKo]

22. She's gonna to the Secret TPP and put it in there...THAT is why she was Chosen...

So many tried to warn us of this...but, it's "over the head" of the "average DU Poster...or there are other reasons to shift focus from the NEW OFA Group.

[Starry Messenger]

41. Is that the royal We?

[badtoworse]

46. OK, I'll take full ownership of the position and change it to "I"

What qualifications would you like to see in the Commerce Secretary and what would you expect that person to do?

[Starry Messenger]

47. Does Pritzker have a track record for attracting manufacturing and industry back to the US?

For creating good jobs, and making sure that they are jobs that can support buying the products that they make? I agree with you that those should be the goals, but I don't see her as the candidate to do that, given what I do know of how she operates.

I'll eat an American-made hat if that happens.

What about someone like Jim Sinegal who just retired as CEO of Costco? http://www.businessinsider.com/costco-ceo-jim-sinegals-success-story-2012-11 The point is moot now, but that's the direction I believe we should go in to be serious about bringing back the US economy.

[badtoworse]

48. Costco has been very successful. He's a great example of what I'm talking about.

My point wasn't that it had to be Pritzker, but someone with good track record in the corporate world. Based on what he did with Costco, he seems well qualified. I believe that Costco has a decent reputation in terms of how they treat their employees, another point in Sinegal's favor.

[HiPointDem]

49. they're MAFIOSI, not 'business leaders'.

[KittyWampus]

13. Sigh.

[cherokeeprogressive]

14. .0001%er. Nice.

[KoKo]

18. KICK!

[Egalitarian Thug]

20. What a shock.

[Dr Fate]

23. I'm glad Obama appointed another Liberal/Progressive who relates to the problems of average people.

And I look forward to all of the wonderful things that are going to happen to me once this guy helps the multi-national corporations create more jobs for us.

[tblue]

36. It's a woman.

But your point is well taken. He could have chosen anyone. My guess is our pragmatic POTUS selected someone the Republicans would approve because he didn't want to have a fight he might lose. Expedience is the order of the day. And connections.

[JW2020]

37. LOL!

Yeah, that's the ticket!

[Dr Fate]

38. Sorry- I was using a form.

Forgot to change it from last time. My bad.

[Skittles]

24. LOL

they are no longer even pretending to work for WE THE PEOPLE

[warrant46]

26. Pretending?

How about--in your face !!

[Skittles]

27. they used to toss us some bones

not anymore

[KG]

25. surely the palace guard will be right along to mansplain to all us haters how this is so awesome...

[Skittles]

28. she's awaiting instructions

they must be late getting back to her

[LWolf]

30. Penny "Pincher" Pritzker. What a choice.

On Thursday, Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis said in a statement that Pritzker "has a long and storied history as being an anti-labor, anti-worker kind of boss. She has supported policies that have had an adverse impact on working-class families and their children."

We cannot imagine that someone who has a long history of bludgeoning Chicago’s working families and destroying public schools would be given a platform to continue these sorts of business practices on a national level," Lewis continued.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/14/penny-pritzker-resigns-chicago_n_2878698.html

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-6Jt6sNY4z80/UMcacUqqdXI/AAAAAAAAIGY/Z_0_I9B1few/s320/Rowdy-Rauner-and-the-Litter-Box-Crew-v2+(1).jpg

http://michaelklonsky.blogspot.com/2012/12/rowdy-rauner-and-rahminator-are-steamin.html

The third reason Obama chose not to risk political capital on a Penny Pritzker nomination fight is that unions despise her. Among the reasons: the Hyatt hotel chain, which the Pritzkers built practically from nothing, is infamous for just about the worst treatment of their staff in the business. (Here’s a moving first-hand account.)

Since that near-nomination, Chicago’s new mayor, Rahm Emanuel, chose Penny Pritzker to join the mayor-appointed school board—a body, as I’ve been documenting here, that has fanatically devoted to breaking the Chicago Teachers Union, and turning over the system to charter school operators. Their excuse has been the school system’s alleged $500 million deficit. Which is where Penny comes in. For while the city’s budget for schools is alleged to be bare, the city’s tax increment financing (TIF) fund, a slush pile for rich developers, carries a surplus of at least $500 million. What does this have to do with Penny Pritzker? Well, as it happens, on my very street, she is building a Hyatt financed with $5.2 million in TIF funds. As the Chicago Teachers Union points out, the TIF fund is controlled personally by the mayor; members of the school board (from which Pritzker recently resigned ahead of her Commerce appointment), overwhelmingly his rich campaign backers, are personally appointed by the mayor; and nothing’s keeping them from leaning on the mayor to tap the TIF surplus to plug the school deficit—except the fact that this very deficit is the rhetorical foundation for all the things they’re doing to weaken the union. All in all, Penny Pritzker’s relationship with labor has become exponentially worse since her near-nomination in 2008.

So how has second-term Obama responded? By renominating her.

Read more: Penny Pritzker's Commerce (Part One) | The Nation http://www.thenation.com/blog/174183/penny-pritzkers-commerce-part-one#ixzz2XH28Ja17
Follow us: @thenation on Twitter | TheNationMagazine on Facebook

[Dr Fate]

31. Liberals who stayed home instead of voting for DEM centrists can blame themselves.

What part of "We dont have the votes" do Liberals not understand?

Obama does not have the votes. He is not a dictator. It's not like he can just wave a magic wand and do whatever DU wants.

If you wanted Obama to be more Liberal, then you should have voted for DEMS in the midterms instead of crying about ponies.

YOUR FAULT. Obama has to deal with the hand he was dealt.

[Autumn]

32. We sure had the votes on this one.

[Dr Fate]

33. I know, but not for some far left freak.

Liberals should have showed up for the midterms if they wanted that.

Otherwise, we dont have the votes.

[Autumn]

34. OOps sorry I forgot the sarcasm tag in my post, going to fix it now.

[MNBrewer]

43. WHo can liberals who voted for those Damned DEM centrists blame?

YOU???

[Initech]

35. I swear sometimes it feels like we live in the Matrix.

[MNBrewer]

42. What an historic occasion, yet one more crack in the glass ceiling

holding down Billionaires from being on the Cabinet. So heartwarming.

[Safetykitten]

50. Oh, so I guess that "she will never be approved plan" did not go so well.

[bluestate10]

51. This may be a stunner to you, but a person that has billions in assets working every day

can honestly misstate their wealth at any given moment, or even any given week, month or year. I am not defending an insanely wealthy person, but I am stating fact.

[Fire Walk With Me]

55. Exactly the same as we will state her factual history of abuses of Hyatt workers. n/t

[Octafish]

52. The only guy who acts like a Democrat in the Senate is the socialist.

Billionaires need love, but really?

[malthaussen]

53. Even Warren voted for her.

Disappointing, especially as it was for Commerce Secretary. Guess she was being a "good girl?"

-- Mal

[Demo_Chris]

54. So much for Warren. n/t