Our friends at the National Association of Manufacturers point us to this interesting observation from the WSJ's editorial page, which seems to suggest that labor may have been "had" by Congressional Democrats on the Employee Free Choice Act:

The way the vote was managed says a lot about how little Democrats really wanted to debate this "card check" legislation in public. Unions claim that it's only fair to let a union organize a work place once 50% of employees have signed a union card. But this very public process leaves workers open to union and peer intimidation, which is why U.S. labor law has allowed secret ballots for a half century. Leaving workers to fend for themselves against the gentle persuasion of, say, the Teamsters isn't a big political winner.

So it's not surprising that Democrats staged their losing vote the same day as a key immigration vote that was certain to get far more public attention. Democrats also did little PR work, and the vote itself had a ritual quality to it, like some of those Republican votes on cultural issues when Tom DeLay was House Majority Leader: Hold a largely symbolic vote, check off a box to pay off your election supporters, and move on to something that most Americans might even care about.

Lest a cynical reader think this is just the right-wingers at WSJ blowing smoke, NAM notes that at least one prominent liberal is making similar noises.

UPDATE: Commenting on the WSJ editorial and the aforementioned liberal blog post, Nathan Newman (see Labor's brightest star) doesn't entirely disagree, but opines that the reasons were more pragmatic than philosophical:

This may have been a pro forma vote on labor law reform, but that's only because a serious vote would require all out warfare by the Dems. Since a revival of the union movement is viewed correctly by the corporate right as the most dangerous threat to their political power, the Dems should take on that battle. But sadly, they are so cowed by the prospect of actually fighting toe-to-toe with the corporate lobbies that these kinds of wimpering votes on labor law reform are about all we can expect.