Sunday January 7 12:06 PM ET Report: Labor Nominee Chavez Housed Illegal Alien

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Linda Chavez, President-elect George W. Bush (news - web sites)'s nominee for labor secretary, allowed a Guatemalan woman who was in the United States illegally to live in her home and gave the woman spending money, ABC reported on Sunday.

The television report quoted Chavez as saying through a Bush spokesman that the woman did odd jobs around her home and was occasionally given spending money, although Chavez did not consider the money as compensation for work.

The report, aired on the ``This Week'' program, quoted the Bush spokesman as saying Chavez suspected the woman was in the country illegally, but did not worry about it because Chavez was not employing her when she lived in Chavez's home in the early 1990s.

Chavez, a former Reagan administration official whose nomination is strongly opposed by labor unions, is among three Bush Cabinet choices expected to undergo intense questioning in the Senate in upcoming confirmation hearings. The others are conservative abortion rights foe John Ashcroft as attorney general and former Colorado Attorney General Gale Norton as interior secretary.

Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota said on Sunday that if the Chavez report was true, it could cause major problems for her nomination.

``I think it would present very serious problems,'' Daschle said on the CBS ``Face the Nation'' program.

Sen. Don Nickles of Oklahoma, the assistant Republican leader, told ABC's ``This Week'' program he did not know of the new allegations.

``But I do know Linda Chavez and I have great respect for her,'' Nickles said. ``I think she'll do a great job and I'm confident she will be confirmed.''

Labor unions worry that Chavez, a strong opponent of affirmative action, will not look after their best interests.

AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said earlier that her nomination was ``an insult to American working men and women.''

``I would hope that all of our nominations sail through, but that's not generally the way it goes. I'm sure there's going to be some tough questioning for some of our nominees,'' Bush recently told reporters.

Chavez, 53, is an outspoken critic of so-called affirmative action programs for blacks, Hispanics and others. She believes U.S. minority groups can succeed without special help from the government.

A syndicated columnist and author who was Bush's campaign adviser on immigration, Chavez last week recalled her parents and the long hours they worked as a house painter and in restaurants and department stores when she was growing up.

``If I am confirmed as secretary of labor, I intend to keep faith with the men and the women who still work at jobs like those my parents held,'' Chavez said after Bush introduced her to the media in Austin, Texas, on Tuesday.

She promised to help make American workers more productive, promote safe working conditions and ensure federal contractors do not discriminate.

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010107/ts/bush_chavez_dc_1.html

-- (Bush administration @ new. labor standards), January 07, 2001

Answers

This Bush administration has a whole new concept of labor... The more money you make, the less you should pay your employess. In fact, it is best not to use American employees at all, but import illegal slaves from other countries. You let them sleep in the garage and throw them a few bucks a week to go to Taco Bell, and they are happy as a clam!

Here is a picture of the uppity bitch with her nose in the air, similar to the Katherine "Heiress" attitude.

-- (Republicans @re. unfuckingbelievable), January 07, 2001.

...allowed a Guatemalan woman who was in the United States illegally to live in her home and gave the woman spending money, ABC reported on Sunday. Did she trade sex for spending money? That makes her a whore...

-- Uncle Bob (unclb0b@aol.com), January 07, 2001.

Yes, the odds are very good that, much like Katherine Heiress, Chavez is also a whore.

-- (you@got.it), January 07, 2001.

Linda Chavez is a white-bread "Hispanic" who does not speak Spanish, whose mother is Anglo and who is married to a non-Hispanic named Gerstner.

-- (LeonTrotsky@Liberation.Theology), January 07, 2001.

Yes, typical Nazi ancestry. Her only relationship with Hispanics is that she likes to use them as slaves.

-- (you@got.it), January 07, 2001.

The real Linda Chavez

-- (LeonTrotsky@Tejanos.sharecroppers), January 07, 2001.

Linda Chavez-Thompson

-- (LeonTrotsky@Tejanos.sharecroppers), January 07, 2001.