Editorial: Chavez’s lamenting does miss the point

Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2001 | 9:41 a.m.

It's interesting that Linda Chavez, who withdrew as President-elect George W. Bush's nominee to be secretary of labor, would suggest she was the victim of "search and destroy" politics. After all, as a political columnist and head of a conservative interest group, she helped write the book on "the politics of personal destruction" with her attacks on Democrats over the years.

The bottom line is that Chavez's downfall was due to her failing to own up to the fact that she misled the Bush transition team, which quietly asked her to drop out. It was Chavez who told Bush administration officials that she wasn't aware that a woman who lived with her during the early 1990s was an illegal immigrant until after she left her house. But when Chavez withdrew Tuesday, she finally acknowledged: "I think I always knew."

Chavez always seemed a strange choice for secretary of labor -- unless you subscribe to the theory that Bush's selection was intended as a poke in the eye to organized labor for its support of Al Gore. Sure, Bush has the right to select someone who shares his vision of governing, but he would do well if his next nominee is someone who all Americans believe will strictly uphold our nation's labor laws. Chavez's anti-labor views certainly didn't generate the kind of confidence Bush needs, especially not from working people. Bush said he would set a new tone in Washington -- he should find a secretary of labor who is committed to the principle of unity, not division.