-By Warner Todd Huston
The Wall Street Journal is reporting today that Big Labor is finding that it might have a bit less of a lock than it thought on its pet legislation, the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA). Apparently, several southern Democrats — those that live in right to work states — as well as some moderates are signaling Senate Majority leader Harry Reid that they are not as interested in entertaining passage of the act as they were when they knew that the GOP was strong enough to filibuster it and when they had a president that stood ready to veto it.
Instead, union leaders now say they are being told card check won’t happen soon. It seems the Obama team plans to devote its opening months to important issues, like the economy, and has no intention of jumping straight into the mother of all labor brawls. It also seems Majority Leader Harry Reid, even with his new numbers, might not have what it takes to overcome a filibuster. It’s a case study in how quickly a political landscape can change, and how frequently the conventional wisdom is wrong.
Of course this little incident illustrates the insincerity of much of what goes on in the Democratic Party. These guys were happy to appear to vote on this measure when they knew that it wouldn’t pass. This way, they could go to their union thug supporters and pretend they were all for their anti-democratic idea in card check all along. But, when it comes to crunch time and they are finally in a position to vote for the law that they claimed they supported, suddenly they reveal that they were simply lying to their supporters. They really don’t support the bill because it is a jobs killer and it takes away people’s democratic rights.
Of course, it would have been better morally to simply admit their real stance on this bill in the first place. Had they have done that, we wouldn’t even be in a position where such an immoral bill could possibly pass. It would have been history long ago.
President Bush pulled this immoral triangulation once, too. He signed the unAmerican and unConstitutional McCain/Fiengold campaign finance “reform” bill expected the Supreme Court to shoot it down. Bush and his cohorts did not support that bill, but he triangulated, assuming that someone else would take the heat for getting rid of it. But Bush was shocked to find that the SCOTUS refused to take the bait and now, because Bush wouldn’t stand up for what is right and hoped to kick that can down the road to someone else, we are stuck with McLame/Fienmold.
When will we get a politician with some moral clarity and a backbone?
____________
Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer, has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and is featured on many websites such as newsbusters.org, Human Events Magazine, townhall.com, New Media Journal, Men’s News Daily and the New Media Alliance among many, many others. Additionally, he has been a frequent guest on talk-radio programs to discuss his opinion editorials and current events. He has also written for several history magazines and appears in the new book “Americans on Politics, Policy and Pop Culture” which can be purchased on amazon.com. He is also the owner and operator of publiusforum.com. Feel free to contact him with any comments or questions : EMAIL Warner Todd Huston
Fair Use: This site may contain copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. I am making such material available in my efforts to advance understanding of political, human rights, economic, democracy, and social justice issues, etc. I believe this constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research, educational, or satirical purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site/blog for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
Sounds to me the Dems are repeating a successful formula (broken promises of 2006), propose legislation during the campaign, get contributions, once the election is won trot out the legislation as a formality and then say Oh well, it didn’t pass. The Unions got suckered and the Dems aren’t giving them their money back just as they did with the anti-war movement.
Of course I personally am glad it will not pass, however, we must ask, how many times will the Dem rank and file be played the suckers???? What did PT Barnum say? “Never give a sucker an even break.”