Commerce secretary nominee John Bryson becomes pawn in political chess match

Tapping a respected Southern California businessman as the next Commerce secretary seemed an astute move by President Obama to mend fences with corporate America, but former Edison International Chief Executive John Bryson still faces a rocky road for confirmation.

Heading into a Senate hearing June 21, Bryson, 67, has become a pawn in a hyper-partisan Washington political chess match that has left dozens of nominees on hold. Nearly all Senate Republicans have vowed to block his confirmation unless the White House advances three pending free trade deals. Another Republican, Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, has promised to hold up the nomination until Obama speaks out against a National Labor Relations Board complaint that accuses Boeing Co. of building a non-union assembly plant in his state in retaliation for union strikes. Bryson had served on Boeing's board before recently stepping down because of his nomination. But on top of those problems, Bryson himself has drawn surprisingly vocal opposition from several Republicans. They object to some of his environmental views and his role more than 40 years ago in co-founding an organization they despise, the Natural Resources Defense Council.