Secret ballots, says the chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, are a “right” that should be extended to Mexican workers. Secret ballots are used to elect him to his leadership post, and will be used this very week to determine who becomes the chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, and to determine whether or not to evict Joe Lieberman as chairman of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security. And powerful labor leaders met in Washington behind closed doors (yes, in secret) last week to plot strategy.

But according to Education and Labor Chairman George Miller, and to those same union bosses, the right to a secret ballot ought to be stripped, by law, from American workers. Instead, the union bosses should be able to monitor individual workers’ votes on whether or not to unionize – in other words, whether or not go give those same bosses more power. How convenient for the union bosses, who will be able to strongarm workers to adopt the union label. And for liberal Democrats like Miller who act as their marionettes.