Vitter to Block Perez Nomination to Labor

Louisiana Republican Sen. David Vitter plans to block the nomination of Thomas Perez to be President Barack Obama’s next Secretary of Labor.

Perez, currently the Assistant Attorney General atop the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division, was complicit in the coverup after the New Black Panther Party voter intimidation scandal at the beginning of the Obama administration. Vitter sent the DOJ a letter in 2011 – two years ago – asking questions about Perez’s involvement in that affair, but has not received any response. He said he will block Perez’s nomination until he receives a response.

“Thomas Perez’s record should be met with great suspicion by my colleagues for his spotty work related to the New Black Panther case, but Louisianians most certainly should have cause for concern about this nomination,” Vitter said in a Monday statement. “Perez was greatly involved in the DOJ’s partisan full court press to pressure Louisiana’s Secretary of State to only enforce one side of the law – the side that specifically benefits the politics of the president and his administration at the expense of identity security of each and every Louisianian on the voter rolls.”

A new DOJ Inspector General report, released this month, shows that Perez misled the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights over the New Black Panther Party scandal by giving incomplete testimony.

Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton told Breitbart News on Monday that it is a scandal ,in and of itself, that President Obama would even consider nominating someone as extreme and unfit for government service as Perez for any role, never mind a cabinet position.

“Any sensible reader of the IG report would conclude that Perez does not have the requisite ethics, honesty, and commitment to the law to serve in government, let alone in the Cabinet,” Fitton said in an email. “President Obama should have announced a civil rights and criminal investigation into Perez and the DOJ Civil Rights Division. Obama’s nomination of Perez is, by itself, a scandal.”