From the Foxes Guarding the Chicken Coop Department

The newly-elected King from the Suburbs Governor Tim Pawlenty nominated attorney Jane Volz to head the Department of Labor and Industry, the department charged with enforcing labor laws in Minnesota. Now it turns out that Ms. Volz didn't bother abiding by the very laws she would enforce as commissioner of this department when it came to her own employees. That was the news a week ago. Despite King Pawlenty's expressed support, it appears the governor's administration has decided to cut their losses and are forcing her to resign.

Volz's law practice specialized in employment law, so if anyone should have been aware they needed unemployment coverage for their employees, she should have. Any remarks about not knowing about it are disengenuous at best and outright lies at the worst. Besides, when was ignorance of the law an excuse?

As Patrick McFarland, executive director, Anoka County Community Action, recently wrote, "It should not surprise anyone that Tim Pawlenty, an attorney who violated Minnesota campaign law to get elected governor, selects as labor commissioner Jane Volz, also an attorney, who violates the very Minnesota labor laws she is charged to enforce."