On the U.S. House Committee on Education and Labor home page, there is Chairman Miller’s “quiz of the week.”  Here it is:

Who said,”The [Employee Free Choice Act] doesn’t remove the secret-ballot option from the National Labor Relations Act…”?

* Rep. George Miller
* Sen. Ted Kennedy
* John Sweeney
* Rachel Maddow
* The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board

Of course, I immediately knew what his answer was going to be (as I’m sure you do to).

Here is the answer: “Even the Wall Street Journal Editorial Board agrees with all of the above that the Employee Free Choice Act protects the secret ballot for workers.”

Wow, the WSJ said that!  Now let’s see what they really said:

The first paragraph of the editorial states:

“The Employee Free Choice Act, a bill that would allow unions to organize worksites without secret-ballot elections, was introduced in Congress last week. And this week, we saw how far Big Labor will go to pass it.”

But Chairman Miller said they agreed it doesn’t remove the secret ballot?

Here is the paragraph in the editorial that Chairman Miller is cherry-picking:

“The bill doesn’t remove the secret-ballot option from the National Labor Relations Act but in practice makes it a dead letter. The bill allows a union to automatically organize a worksite if more than 50% of workers simply sign an authorization card, so pressure for employees to sign in public view would be enormous. The legislation also imposes a contract through binding arbitration if labor and management reach a stalemate.”

Unlike Chairman Miller, the WSJ is precise and accurate in how it explains the law.  Technically, there are ways to still have a secret ballot, but as the WSJ clearly is stating, it is a moot point because unions will get around it.

Chairman Miller also fails to mention the statement that the WSJ makes right up front, and which is the real criticism against the Card Check Bill: The bill “would allow unions to organize worksites without secret-ballot elections…”

The argument by critics (such as me) isn’t that there is never going to be secret ballot elections, but that secret ballot elections would be rare–in addition, these elections always should be done secretly.

Also, notice how Chairman Miller, in the answer says the WSJ agrees that the Card Check Bill “protects the secret ballot for workers.”  This is so misleading that it fairly can be described as a lie.  The bill takes away protections and does nothing to protect secret ballots.

We haven’t just seen how far Big Labor will go to pass this legislation (as the WSJ mentions)–we now have seen how far Rep. Miller (D-CA) will go to get support for this indefensible bill.  If misleading the public (including his constituents) and distorting the truth (i.e. lying) is necessary to get support, then so be it.

My quiz of the week: Who is the sleaziest Congressman of the week?  It is tough, I know, but I think I’ve made a decent case for Chairman Miller.