Gingrich the latest candidate to slam NLRB's Boeing lawsuit

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) became the latest Republican presidential candidate to criticize the National Labor Relations Board's lawsuit against Boeing, calling its actions illegal and calling upon the government to defund the group if it persists in the suit.
 
The NLRB is suing Boeing, which has been building 787 airplanes at its unionized plant near Seattle, claiming that the aircraft manufacturer is retaliating against strikes by its Washington state-based union by opening a plant to build 787s in South Carolina.
 
South Carolina is a so-called “right to work” state, where employers are not obliged to join a union.
 
The lawsuit has infuriated South Carolina Republicans and, since South Carolina is an early 2012 primary state, it has also caught the attention of GOP presidential hopefuls.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney compared it, for intrusiveness, to the federal healthcare law that is anathema to conservative activists, and former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty called it "preposterous" in a recent debate in South Carolina.
 
Gingrich, who officially declared his candidacy last week, took aim at the lawsuit shortly thereafter.
 
The agency is "basically breaking the law to try to punish Boeing and to threaten every right-to-work state," Gingrich said on NBC's "Meet the Press" Sunday, where he was the first of the venerable political show’s "Meet the Candidates" interview series of the 2012 cycle.
 
On Friday, Gingrich said the NLRB should be defunded if it goes ahead with the suit.
 
The White House has said President Obama will not comment on the lawsuit because the NLRB is an "independent agency."