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Minimum Wage: Whither Mitt?      The federal minimum wage rose
70 cents today, to $5.85 an hour -- the first step in a two-year
march to $7.25 an hour. Government figures cited by the
Associated Press indicate that just 1.7 million people -- out of
a total non-farm labor force of some 136 million workers --
earned the minimum wage or less in 2006; still the increase was
a big political victory for the Democrats, one that came at the
expense of lobbyists from the National Federation of Independent
Businesses and the Chamber of Commerce, among others. To
appreciate how big a victory, consider that the last time the
federal minimum wage and last minimum wage increase occurred in
1997.      Naturally, the Democrats are celebrating. But what of
the Republicans? It turns out Mitt Romney, campaigning for
governor of Massachusetts in 2002, supported increasing the
minimum wage. Not just increasing it, either -- but actually
indexing it to inflation. Of co