Tell your Senator to vote NO on Pritzker for Commerce. Vote YES on Companies that value workers! #1u bit.ly/10IoNFH

— UNITE HERE (@unitehere) May 21, 2013

Penny Pritzker is an excellent candidate to lead @commercegov. I will be proud to vote for her & urge my Senate colleagues to do the same.

— Tom Harkin (@SenatorHarkin) May 21, 2013

WASHINGTON--Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) said Tuesday he will back Penny Pritzker for Commerce Secretary, the first Republican to make a public statement in support of the Chicago billionaire business mogul who is a close friend of President Barack Obama.

As I reported here Monday, Kirk will help introduce Pritzker at her Thursday confirmation hearing, joining Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) in a traditional role for home state senators.

Meanwhile, Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) also announced his support, with the senator, who has a labor following, making his backing public while UNITE HERE Local 1, the hotel workers union, started a drive to urge senators to vote against Pritzker because of long-running union disputes with Hyatt Hotels, the chain controlled by the Pritzker family.

Kirk said in a statement, "I support Penny Pritzker for Commerce Secretary and will introduce her alongside Senator Durbin at Thursday's confirmation hearing. I believe that, based on her extensive experience in business, she will put jobs and economic growth first. I met with Ms. Pritzker and found her to be someone who is willing to take on special interests, and I am confident her successful private-sector record and close ties to the business community will be beneficial to all of Illinois."

Updated....

WASHINGTON--After first giving her a pass, the union representing Hyatt Hotel workers on Monday protested President Barack Obama's nomination of Penny Pritzker to be Commerce Secretary.

Pritzker's Senate confirmation hearing is Thursday morning. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), a strong Pritzker backer, will be introducing Pritzker at her hearing. Pritzker, I'm told, is expecting Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.), who has not committed to supporting her, to also be with her when she is introduced.

"It is a hard assignment to get approved in the Senate, when (Republicans) are determined to filibuster and slow down every appointment," Durbin said.

Pritzker's family founded the giant hotel chain and Pritzker sits on the board, a position she will relinquish if she is confirmed she said in financial disclosure papers filed last week.

After Obama tapped Pritzker, the union, UNITE HERE Local 1 issued a bland release not attacking Pritzker by name.

In a statement released on Monday, Cathy Youngblood, a Hyatt housekeeper who has led a national campaign to elect a hotel worker to Hyatt's Board of Directors said, "The Commerce Secretary's first concern should be to create good, family sustaining jobs for all Americans. Under Pritzker's direction, Hyatt has led the hotel industry in a race to the bottom by aggressively subcontracting out career hotel jobs to minimum wage temps. This is not the model that will lead our country to a bright economic future."

When I wrote last week about organized labor giving Pritzker a pass, I focused on UNITE HERE Local 1 because the union had been waging a battle with Hyatt for years.

What I wrote last week: "However, after Pritzker was nominated, Unite crafted a statement that went out of its way not to lay a glove on Pritzker, noting only that that the role of commerce secretary "requires a serious focus on the challenge of helping workers achieve full-time jobs with decent wages and safe working conditions."

"Tamarin declined an interview through a Unite spokesman, who told me it was premature to comment before Pritzker's confirmation hearing. His son, Nate Tamarin, works in the White House. He is special assistant to the president for public engagement -- who has been a White House liaison to organized labor."

Nate Tamarin left his White House post on Friday, after four years and four months on the job.

WASHINGTON--Mayor Rahm Emanuel tapped Desiree Rogers--former White House Social Secretary, now CEO of Johnson Publishing--to chair the board of the city's non-profit tourism marketing organization, Choose Chicago.
Rogers replaces Bruce Rauner, who stepped down, exploring a GOP bid for Illinois governor.

The Sun-Times Mike Sneed had the scoop earlier.

Below, from City Hall....

Experienced Business Leader to Guide Tourism Organization toward Mayor's Goal of 50 Million Annual Visitors

Monday morning, Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced the appointment of Desiree Rogers as Chair of the Choose Chicago board. Rogers replaces Bruce Rauner, who resigned from the position earlier in May to pursue personal interests.

"Desiree Rogers is a world-class business executive and a truly proud Chicagoan, and her unique talents and experience are a perfect fit for this important role," said Mayor Emanuel. "I am confident that she will help Choose Chicago reach the next level as it continues to find creative ways to lure tourists and convention business. I am excited at the prospect of working alongside Desiree again and I celebrate both her appointment and her success."

WASHINGTON -- At the first congressional hearing on the IRS scandal, the soon-departing acting IRS chief Steve Miller balked each time lawmakers used the word "target" Friday to describe, well, the targeting of conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.

After a four-hour House Ways and Means Committee hearing, lawmakers never were able to elicit from Miller the name or names of career IRS employees who devised the plan to scrutinize organizations with "Tea Party" or "patriot" in their names. Miller said what they were doing was a "shortcut" to grapple with a heavy workload.

"I want to apologize on behalf of the Internal Revenue Service for the mistakes that we made and the poor service we provided. The affected organizations and the American public deserve better. Partisanship or even the perception of partisanship has no place at the IRS. It cannot even appear to be a consideration in determining the tax exemption of an organization," Miller said.

Other hearings in the coming days and weeks may get to the very bottom of the scandal; nobody was buying Miller's "poor service" line. Friday was the first stab at putting the story together, in public. President Barack Obama announced this week Miller was booted out. Miller revealed at the hearing he will be allowed to retire under civil service rules.

Illinois has three members on the panel, Rep. Peter Roskam and Rep. Aaron Schock, both Republicans, and Rep. Danny Davis, a Democrat, and they all quizzed Miller.

Roskam and Schock -- and the other Republicans -- were prosecutorial. Davis and the other Democrats tried to take a larger view and steer away from GOP suggestions that this led to the Obama White House. All three were highly critical of the IRS for singling out conservative groups.

After a light round of questions, Davis concluded, "You know, after listening to all of the discussion and reading all of the information that I've read, I am not convinced that this is a great big political conspiracy. I would certainly admit that there has been some ineptitude."

Schock tried to broaden the scope of inquiry by submitting a 150-page document from the Thomas More Society with more "revelations" about anti-abotion and other groups being targeted.

Roskam focused on how the news broke about the scandal, a story in itself of bungling.

Four days before the May 14 release of the Treasury Inspector General Report -- which scorched the IRS for "inappropriate and changing criteria that may have led to inconsistent treatment of organizations" -- Miller et al. decided to reveal the Tea Party targeting in what turned out, in hindsight, to be terrible judgment.

Another IRS official, Lois Lerner, was scheduled to speak May 10 at an American Bar Association May meeting on Taxation at the Grand Hyatt Hotel here.

Miller and Lerner arranged for a question by a friendly attorney to be planted to allow Lerner to disclose the targeting in her answer.

First, Roskam brushed aside Miller's objection that targeting was a "loaded term."

"Mr. Miller, you may object to the word 'targeting,' but it's used in the IG report 16 times. So it's a common understanding of the word, and so I would just suggest that it's a well-settled doctrine and we not waste a lot of time parsing on it," Roskam said.

Roskam pressed on: "Can you walk me through the logic that animated in your mind at that time, where you thought it would be a good idea to make a public disclosure to the American Bar Association rather than coming and following up on your duty to disclose that to the House?"

Miller replied, "So we were going to do it at the same time, I believe; that our intent was to talk to you all at the same time."

But it never happened; Miller said they "called" to "get it on the calendar.

Roskam saw the lame answer for what it was. "You called to try and get on the calendar? Is that all you got?"

Comedy Central caption over Lynn Sweet photo taken at Rose Garden press conference with President Barack Obama and Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan

WASHINGTON -- Add sexual assault in the military as another scandal for the Obama White House -- one that is being overshadowed by the three other scandals commanding most of the attention in recent days.

Obama held a press conference with Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and was grilled in the Rose Garden about the IRS targeting Tea Party and other conservative groups and the Justice Department snooping on the AP phone records. Still in play is the controversy over the Obama administration response to the Benghazi, Libya attacks.

Later in the day, Obama called a special meeting with military brass to address the sexual assault scandal, with yet another episode of alleged misconduct surfacing.

When it started to rain during the press conference, Obama called over two white-gloved Marines who shielded the leaders with their Mary Poppins umbrellas while standing at near attention. I snapped a photo of the weird umbrella scene and Tweeted it out. Someone at Comedy Central saw it and added a caption over my picture on their website: "The Marines are currently working on a type of umbrella to shield Obama from scandals."

But it is not going to be that easy for the Obama White House.

IRS: No to special counsel

Obama rejected suggestions that a special counsel be appointed to probe the IRS for targeting conservative groups.

With the Justice Department conducting a criminal investigation and the Treasury inspector general recommending an investigation, "I think we're going to be able to figure out exactly what happened, who was involved, what went wrong, and we're going to be able to implement steps to fix it."

No AP apology

Obama defended the Department of Justice and Attorney General Eric Holder over seizing the phone records of some Associated Press editors and reporters.

"Leaks related to national security can put people at risk," Obama said. AP editors held a story that may have triggered the government hunt, running it after the White House said the information at issue was about to be released by the White House.

"And so I make no apologies, and I don't think the American people would expect me as commander in chief not to be concerned about information that might compromise their missions or might get them killed."

Holder vote of confidence

Holder had been rumored to be leaving since the start of Obama's second term. Now he will stay a bit, so it does not look as if he was run out of town by hostile congressional Republicans. "I have complete confidence in Eric Holder as attorney general," Obama said.

Sex assault: Needs to stop

The latest military sexual assault problem came on Thursday, when the top official dealing with sexual harrasment at Fort Campbell was arrested in connection with a domestic dispute. A sergeant at Fort Hood was accused of running a prostitution ring on Wednesday.

Obama, meeting with military brass, Vice President Joe Biden, Defense Secrertary Chuck Hagel, senior adviser Valerie Jarrett and others said about sexual assault, "Not only is it a crime, not only is it shameful and disgraceful, but it also is going to make and has made the military less effective than it can be.

"So this is not a sideshow," Obama said. "This is not sort of a second-order problem that we're experiencing. This goes to the heart and core of who we are and how effective we're going to be."

Sen. John Thune, Penny Pritzker.
(photo courtesy office of Sen. John Thune)

WASHINGTON--Commerce Secretary nominee Penny Pritzker met with South Dakota Sen. John Thune on Thursday; the top Republican on the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, holding a confirmation hearing on Pritzker on May 23.

Pritzker's first Senate calls have been with members of that committee--with an exception her first visit, with Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) on Tuesday. Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) has been non-commital on the confirmation of the billionaire Chicago business executive, philanthropist and close personal friend of President Barack Obama.

Thune also met with Transportation nominee Anthony Foxx, the mayor of Charlotte, N.C.

"I would like to thank both nominees for taking the time to meet with me in my office today. The confirmation process should be a rigorous, fair, and thorough exercise and I appreciate the nominees sharing more about their backgrounds, qualifications, and vision for both cabinet agencies," Thune said in a statement.

"Americans continue to suffer from weak economic growth and persistent, high unemployment, and I had an opportunity to hear from Ms. Pritzker how she believes the Commerce Department can better work to address those and other issues. I expressed to Mayor Foxx that our nation faces a number of transportation challenges that will require strong leadership and effective communication with Congress to keep our nation moving.

"I will continue to review the paperwork they submitted in preparation for their confirmation hearings next week and expect that they will continue to be open and forthcoming as the process moves forward."

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

WASHINGTON--President Barack Obama gave beleagured Attorney General Eric Holder a show of support at a press conference on Thursday, as Holder takes heat from Republicans for the Associated Press phone record snooping scandal--just the latest matter.

"I have complete confidence in Eric Holder as attorney general."

Obama also offered no apology for the unprecedented intrusion into AP phone records--citing the need for "balance" between democracy and national security.

CLICK HERE FOR COMPLETE TRANSCRIPT

CLICK HERE for behind the scene pre-press conference video.

WASHINGTON--Rep. Robin Kelly (D-Ill.) delivered her first floor speech on Thursday, centering on her main campaign theme, gun-control.

"I know there are those who think that new gun laws aren't the solution. I say they're looking at the wrong equation. Common sense gun restrictions are part of a multi-pronged approach to stemming gun violence that should also include increased access to mental health services and better community and social supports. It will take a village to save these children, our children,"

The Senate rejected a series of gun-control measures earlier this year. The fate of gun measures in the House is uncertain.

WASHINGTON -- Juggling three big problems -- with the IRS scandal sparking scorching bipartisan criticism -- President Barack Obama and his team Wednesday scrambled to contain the damage.

The acting commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, Steven Miller, was forced out over the targeting of conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status.

Of the three crises -- the IRS targeting, the Justice Department snooping on Associated Press reporters phone calls and the long running debate over what happened before and after the Sept. 11 attacks in Benghazi, Libya, with four U.S. diplomats killed -- the IRS debacle is the most threatening to Obama.

That's because everybody hates the IRS -- the lone government agency without a constitutiency. The IRS scandal created rare bipartisan unity. Democrats and Republicans in Congress united against an agency with no defenders.

Miller knew -- and did not reveal to Congress that he knew -- about the IRS demanding an abundance of information from conservative groups in 2012.

In a brief statement Wednesday from the East Room, Obama said the IRS conduct was "inexcusable, and Americans are right to be angry about it, and I am angry about it. I will not tolerate this kind of behavior in any agency, but especially in the IRS, given the power that it has and the reach that it has into all of our lives.

"And as I said earlier, it should not matter what political stripe you're from -- the fact of the matter is, is that the IRS has to operate with absolute integrity. The government generally has to conduct itself in a way that is true to the public trust. That's especially true for the IRS."

With Miller gone, the IRS scandal will not disappear because of hearings in the House and Senate over the coming days with IRS officials expected to testify: Friday at Ways and Means; Tuesday before the Senate Finance Committee; and, on Wednesday, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

Rep. Aaron Schock (R-Ill.), who is on the Ways and Means panel, said the Miller resignation was not enough. "In fact, this should not be the only IRS resignation announced this week as we continue to learn that the scope of involvement is much wider than first reported by IRS officials last week. What was done was not only inappropriate, but it was illegal, and those responsible must pay a criminal price for their actions," he said in a statement.

Meanwhile, while Obama personally went on camera to confront the IRS scandal -- with more from Obama expected Thursday at a White House press conference --the White House disclosed emails between staffers in the White House, State Department and CIA over talking points to describe what happened in Benghazi.

The White House usually does not disclose internal communications unless it is in their messaging interests. The email move came after Republicans used portions of emails that had surfaced to continue to make the argument that, after the attacks, the White House tried to craft talking points for political purposes.

Many of the email exchanges had to do with establishing a base set of facts -- but they did disclose much worry about how some wording could leave the Obama team exposed to criticism.

While the White House portrayed the emails as earnest works in progress, Brendan Buck, a spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said that the "seemingly political nature of the State Department's concerns raises questions about the motivations behind these changes and who at the State Department was seeking them."

And on another front, Attorney General Eric Holder appeared before the House Judiciary Committee -- chaired by Holder critic Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), where he said he was not to blame for the AP spying.

"In fact, the head of the RNC called for my resignation in spite of the fact that I was not the person who was involved in that decision," Holder said of the call by the Republican National Committee Chair Reince Priebus.

"But be that as it may, I was recused in that matter. As I described, I guess, in a press conference that I held yesterday, the decision to issue this subpoena was made by the people who are presently involved in the case. The matter is being supervised by the deputy attorney general. I am not familiar with the reasons why the case -- why the subpoena was constructed in the way that it was because I'm simply not a part of the -- of the case."

The public may not care much about reporters or how many times the Benghazi talking points were revised. But everyone deals with the IRS -- which is why this scandal won't go away soon for the Obama White House.

WASHINGTON -- The portfolio of Chicago billionaire Penny Pritzker, the Commerce secretary nominee, reflects vast holdings in hotels, casinos, parking lots, student and elderly housing, a stake in the show "Singin' in the Rain," and last year, $53.6 million from a family trust in the Bahamas.

Pritzker filed a required 184-page disclosure document with the U.S. Office of Governmental Ethics on Wednesday, along with other papers outlining how she will avoid conflicts of interest if confirmed for the post.

She may also have to disclose even more information for the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation -- which has its own questionnaire -- in advance of her May 23 confirmation hearing, which could turn into a grilling, given her vast assets.

Highlights:

◆ If confirmed, Pritzker will step down from the Hyatt Hotels Corp. board, the hotel chain founded and controlled by her family, one of the wealthiest in the nation. However, she will be able to retain her Hyatt stock because Commerce ethics advisers "determined that it is not necessary at this time for me to divest my interests" because she would recuse herself if matters arise creating a conflict of interest with Hyatt.

◆ Pritzker will be divesting herself of 221 other holdings within 90 days of her confirmation. The assets and other details about the holdings -- many are trusts -- did not have to be disclosed.

◆ Pritzker will resign from 158 other organizations, a mix of corporate, trusts, non-profits and charitiable posts, including positions at Hyatt, Pritzker Reality, Harvard and Stanford (her schools), the Aspen Institute's Skills for America's Future, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Economic Club of Chicago and the Pritzker Traubert Foundaion.

◆ Off-shore trusts are politically sensitive, especially since the Democrats beat up Mitt Romney over them in the presidential campaign. The $53.6 million was payment for Pritzker's services over 10 years related to the restructuring of the trusts in the Bahamas, according to a source close to the Pritzker family.

The restructure was the result of a settlement of what had been a family dispute, pitting different generations of the Pritzker family against each other.

According to the source, those trusts were created when Pritzker was a young girl, and Pritzker "does not control these trusts and has not received and has no legal right to require any distributions from these trusts."

The restructure was completed last November, with assets untangled and separated by immediate family. The source said Pritzker requested that the trustee for what is now her trust start the legal process leading to the installation of a U.S. trustee.

"She has made this request because it would permit all the trusts for the benefit of her and her immediate family to be more effectively managed and efficiently administered. She has no control over this legal process, its timing or outcome," according to the source.

"The only income Penny has received from these trusts is for the services she performed over the last 10 years to restructure the Pritzker family trusts' holdings."

◆ Pritzker through investments or trusts has stakes in the Grand Victoria Casino in Elgin; an airplane leasing company and branded tomatoes. She stepped down from the Chicago Board of Education last March; another holding was in a company investing in teacher software to be used in public school systems.

◆ Values for homes do not have to be disclosed. She has a loan of between $25 million and $50 million -- only ranges have to be revealed -- for a Colorado residence.

◆ Pritzker disclosed a revolving line of credit for three credit cards: between $250,000 and $300,000 for American Express, and between $15,000 and $50,000 for cards with Chase and Neiman Marcus.

WASHINGTON--Faced with a scandal, President Barack Obama on Wednesday said the acting IRS Commisioner, Steven Miller, was asked to resign and he would cooperate fully with Congressional probes of IRS targeting conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.

Obama made the announcement during a brief appearance in the East Room.

"So here's what we're going to do. First, we're going to hold the responsible parties accountable. Yesterday, I directed Secretary Lew to follow up on the IG audit to see how this happened and who is responsible, and to make sure that we understand all the facts. Today, Secretary Lew took the first step by requesting and accepting the resignation of the acting commissioner of the IRS because, given the controversy surrounding this audit, it's important to institute new leadership that can help restore confidence going forward," Obama said.

"Second, we're going to put in place new safeguards to make sure this kind of behavior cannot happen again. And I've directed Secretary Lew to ensure the IRS begins implementing the IG's recommendations right away.

Third, we will work with Congress as it performs its oversight role. And our administration has to make sure that we are working hand in hand with Congress to get this thing fixed. Congress, Democrats and Republicans, owe it to the American people to treat that authority with the responsibility it deserves and in a way that doesn't smack of politics or partisan agendas, because I think one thing that you've seen is, across the board, everybody believes what happened in -- as reported in the IG report is an outrage. The good news is it's fixable. And it's in everyone's best interest to work together to fix it.

"I'll do everything in my power to make sure nothing like this happens again by holding the responsible parties accountable, by putting in place new checks and new safeguards and, going forward, by making sure that the law is applied as it should be, in a fair and impartial way. And we're going to have to make sure that the laws are clear so that we can have confidence that they are enforced in a fair and impartial way and that there's not too much ambiguity surrounding these laws.

So that's what I expect. That's what the American people deserve. And that's what we're going to do.

WASHINGTON--Penny Pritzker, President Barack Obama's pick to be the next Commerce Secretary, will resign from the Hyatt Hotels Corporation and other positions, according to letter she wrote as part of her ethics statements filed Wednesday in advance of her May 23 confirmation hearing.

Pritzker wrote that the duties of Commerce Secretary may involve matters "affecting the financial interests of Hyatt Hotels Corporation" and other hotel relate interests. Pritzker said she was advised she will not have to divest from these holdings but would recuse herself when appropriate.

Upon confirmation, Pritzker said she will resign from more than 20 Pritzker family trusts and a variety of civic and charitable organizations.

Developing

Eager to continue discussing the Commerce Secretary nomination with Penny Pritzker at Senate Commerce hearing 5/23 at 11:00am

— Jay Rockefeller (@SenRockefeller) May 15, 2013

Senate Commerce panel chair Sen. John Rockefeller tweets Wednesday on Penny Pritzker's May 23 confirmation hearing for Commerce Secretary: "Eager to continue discussing the Commerce Secretary nomination with Penny Pritzker."

WASHINGTON -- Penny Pritzker, President Barack Obama's Commerce secretary nominee, has long been a target of organized labor -- with the drive against her led by the Chicago Teachers Union and Unite Here Local 1, representing the city's hotel workers.

Yet as Pritzker is lining up Senate support for her confirmation -- making her first courtesy calls on Tuesday, starting with a meeting in the Capitol with Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) -- no union, either national or local, has raised any objection to her nomination.

"I look forward to helping her through the confirmation process and to working with her once she's sworn in as the next secretary of commerce," Durbin said in a statement after the meeting.

The unions have muzzled themselves, not because they are crazy about the Pritzker nomination. They are not. Labor officials I talked to told me they are taking a pass on Pritzker because unions have a lot more pressing battles than taking on Pritzker.

Unions are worried because Republicans are blocking Obama's nominee for Labor secretary, Thomas Perez, and nominees to the National Labor Relations Board, including Chicago attorney Phillip Miscimarra, a partner at Morgan Lewis.

The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee is holding a hearing Thursday on the NLRB nominees, and the nominees are "likely in for a contentious fight," the Communications Workers of America said in a briefing memo.

For the unions, fighting Pritzker is a lost cause, so best to move on to other battles and leave her alone --and keep out of trouble with the White House. Union leaders are pragmatic and know they do not have the muscle among labor-friendly Democratic senators to have any significant impact anyway. And an anti-union rap would not be a problem for Pritzker with Republican senators.

If the unions had influence, it would have been at the front end -- before Obama tapped Pritzker last week. The unions live in the real world and know that Obama is personally close to Pritzker and may not have won the White House in 2008 without her work as his National Finance Chair and wanted her in the Commerce spot.

In Chicago, Pritzker drew the wrath of the CTU when she was on the Chicago Board of Education; when she stepped down in March, CTU President Karen Lewis said so long in statement that called her an "anti-labor, anti-worker kind of boss."

The Pritzker family controls Hyatt Hotels, and Penny Pritzker is on the board of the hotel chain. She will have to step down in order to join the cabinet as part of her ethics scrub.

The hotel workers union and Hyatt have been at odds for years. Unite Here Local 1 President Henry Tamarin has led the charge against the Pritzker family, teaming up at times with the teachers union to attack the family.

In March 2012, Tamarin slammed Pritzker family members for appealing their property taxes, telling WBBM radio, "We think the family that owns the Hyatt hotels has gone off the reservation of what's fair and just," Tamarin said.

However, after Pritzker was nominated, Unite crafted a statement that went out of its way not to lay a glove on Pritzker, noting only that that the role of commerce secretary "requires a serious focus on the challenge of helping workers achieve full-time jobs with decent wages and safe working conditions."

With Pritzker's presumed departure from the Hyatt Board, Unite devoted most of the statement to its drive to get a hotel worker on the board to take her place.

Tamarin declined an interview through a Unite spokesman, who told me it was premature to comment before Pritzker's confirmation hearing. His son, Nate Tamarin, works in the White House. He is special assistant to the president for public engagement -- who has been a White House liaison to organized labor.

Rep. Duckworth speaks with female cadets at the National Military Afghan Academy (photo courtesy office of Rep. Duckworth)

WASHINGTON--Wounded Iraq war veteran Rep. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), traveled to Afghanistan and the United Arab Emirates on an official congressional trip where she focused on the role women are playing as the nation transitions to a new chapter with the planned departure of most U.S. and NATO troops in 2014.

On Mothers Day--last Sunday--Duckworth met with a group of women serving in the U.S. and Afghanistan military. Duckworth is one of two female Iraq war vets serving in Congress.

"In my meetings with the leaders of our military and the Afghan military and government I stressed the need to continue our pursuit of Al-Qaeda, the Taliban and other terrorist groups who seek to attack America. As a member of the House Armed Services Committee, I will continue to work tirelessly to make sure that our troops in harms way have the tools to succeed and that our presence in Afghanistan keeps the American people safe. At the same time, we need to continue the gradual drawdown of our military presence in Afghanistan over the next year," Duckworth said in a statement.

Duckworth is a member of House Armed Services Committee; her subcommittees are Tactical Air and Land Forces and Oversight and Investigations.