Hilda Solis, I haven’t been able to forget about. But am I the only one who had forgotten that Tom Vilsack — the man who was at one time going to be president, or so we were told — is ag secretary? His firing of Shirley Sherrod was news in more ways than one.

By the way, former labor secretary Elaine Chao had a good Labor Day oped in the Journal this week. I’ll share the optimistic part here:

there are some bright spots. For starters, we seem to be facing up to failure faster. Thanks to the Internet and the proliferation of news sources on radio and television, it is commonly acknowledged that the current tax-and-spend policies are impeding economic recovery.

The first step in reversing failure is to face up to it and not spend an entire decade, as we did in the 1970s, compounding economic debacle upon economic debacle. Facts may not impede injurious agendas in the capital, but a politically aware electorate can derail the wrong-minded political elite.

The men and women who compose the American work force are 150 million more reasons to be confident in the future. Our private-sector work force is the most industrious, innovative, productive and ambitious in the world. We can overcome the government policies currently constraining us.