Labor Secretary Steps Out In Wisconsin Union Fight

President Obama is staying mostly quiet about the union battle going on in Wisconsin.

His labor secretary, Hilda Solis, is not.

"The fight is on!" Solis told a cheering crowd at the Democratic National Committee's winter meeting over the weekend in Washington. Giving her support to "our brothers and sisters in public employee unions,"

Solis pledged aid to unionized workers who are "under assault" in Wisconsin and elsewhere.

"Admittedly, I am a little biased," she told the DNC, "because ... I come from a union household."

But is it the role of the secretary of labor to take sides in a fight that pits public employee union members against workers and taxpayers who support Walker's reforms? After all, the Labor Department mission statement says its purpose is "to foster, promote, and develop the welfare of the wage earners, job seekers, and retirees of the United States." It doesn't say anything about unionized wage earners, job seekers, and retirees.

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