OPINION:
To some, Commerce Secretary nominee Penny Pritzker is known as “the Bundler” of campaign cash. She is also a Hyatt hotel heiress and billionaire who was President Obama’s 2008 campaign-finance manager (“Commerce nominee Pritzker downplays role in management of failed bank,” Web, May 23).
The job of the Commerce Department is to engage in sensitive, nonpartisan international discussions to draft and revise trade agreements. The department is also involved in securing access to lucrative markets for many businesses, including international hotel conglomerates such as Hyatt.
More recently, the Commerce Department has come under fire for being powerless to prevent or even enabling vulture-capitalist takeovers in existing markets by international brands when previous awardees have been notified that their local business “status” has been revoked, owing to a renegotiated trade agreement between the Commerce Department and the host government.
We should all see Ms. Pritzker’s nomination as secretary of commerce for was it is: prejudicial and a pay-to-play reward for a would-be vulture capitalist with all the aces in her hand. It is for these reasons and because of the many unresolved union complaints against Hyatt that Ms. Pritzker should not be confirmed as secretary of commerce.
JONATHAN CHASE
Raleigh, N.C.
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