The Week

■ In a better world, the two candidates would be accusing each other of resembling Harry Truman.

■ If the Bush Administration is really serious about emphasizing substance over sex in this Year of the Woman, they apparently haven’t told Secretary of Labor Lynn Martin. Secretary Martin first proved a drag on the Administration with her reluctance to enforce the Supreme Court’s Beck decision, which allows workers to get back that portion of their dues that union bosses spend on politics. Long after the President issued an order to put teeth into Beck, we’re still waiting for Miss Martin’s Labor Department to require workplace notices informing union members of their rights as well as new financial disclosure forms that would make the campaign money more difficult to hide. With regard to her latest achievement, we quote from a recent New York Times article on her testimony before the Senate Finance Committee: “Ms. Martin,” says the article, “became the first Administration official to provide an estimate of American jobs that would be lost with the elimination of trade barriers among Canada, Mexico, and the United States.” Yet Miss Martin remains at her post, without so much as a reprimand. And you thought chivalry was dead.

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■ In a better world, the two candidates would be accusing each other of resembling Harry Truman.

■ If the Bush Administration is really serious about emphasizing substance over sex in this Year of the Woman, they apparently haven’t told Secretary of Labor Lynn Martin. Secretary Martin first proved a drag on the Administration with her reluctance to enforce the Supreme Court’s Beck decision, which allows workers to get back that portion of their dues that union bosses spend on politics. Long after the President issued an order to put teeth into Beck, we’re still waiting for Miss Martin’s Labor Department to require workplace notices informing union members of their rights as well as new financial disclosure forms that would make the campaign money more difficult to hide. With regard to her latest achievement, we quote from a recent New York Times article on her testimony before the Senate Finance Committee: “Ms. Martin,” says the article, “became the first Administration official to provide an estimate of American jobs that would be lost with the elimination of trade barriers among Canada, Mexico, and the United States.” Yet Miss Martin remains at her post, without so much as a reprimand. And you thought chivalry was dead.