Professor Bill Gould is quoted by Steven Greenhouse of The New York Times on how the NLRB's sole Republican member Brian E. Hayes' threat to quit is "unprecedented" and takes partisanship to another level.

The National Labor Relations Board, the subject of particularly intense partisan sniping this year, could soon be completely paralyzed.

The labor board’s sole Republican member, Brian E. Hayes, has threatened to resign to deny the N.L.R.B. the three-person quorum it needs to make any decisions, according to board officials. Mr. Hayes has made his threat expressly to block the Democratic-dominated board from adopting new rules to speed up unionization elections, which the board’s other current members, both Democrats, intend to pass Nov. 30.

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William B. Gould IV, the chairman of the board under President Clinton, said Mr. Hayes’s threat to quit takes partisanship to another level. “I have never heard of anything like that happening,” he said. “It’s unprecedented.”

As for Mr. Hayes’s suggestion that he might not attend the Nov. 30 session to block any vote, Mr. Gould said, “I don’t think he can deny a quorum by not showing up. If he resigned, I guess that’s different.”