-By Warner Todd Huston
The Chicago Association of African American Transporters told Governor Pat Quinn that they’d mount a no-to-Quinn campaign if he didn’t pay the back bills owed them by the state. And now, despite the fact that other vendors are still not getting paid and the State is practically bankrupt, the CAAAT has suddenly found all its past bills paid by Quinn’s government.
It sure is pretty convenient that this union miraculously found its bills paid by Quinn just when they threatened to mount a campaign against his reelection, isn’t it?
Capitol Fax reminds us that this newest union payoff comes on the heels of another recent union payoff that Quinn offered to the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) when he promised not to lay any of them off if he wins his own full term in November. This promise prompted AFSCME to make massive campaign donations to Quinn’s campaign.
This is all no less than Quinn’s pandering to union thugs. As the Chicago Daily Observer notes, “According to Quinn’s ‘logic’ if you want to be paid the money you are owed by the state, the best way to get your cash is to threaten to withhold your vote for his reelection effort. That is one interesting way to decide who is highest on the priority list of those who are owed state money.”
It’s hard to knock the CDO’s logic, isn’t it?
But this is all of a piece with Quinn’s tenure in the Governor’s manse. Back in October of 2009, for instance, Quinn tried to hand the SEIU and AFSCME a victory by promulgating a stealth campaign to unionize in-home healthcare workers against their will and without their knowledge.
So, this has been Quinn’s MO in office. Find a union, give it a payoff, and get campaign donations. This is Quinn’s corrupt bargain.
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“The only end of writing is to enable the reader better to enjoy life, or better to endure it.”
–Samuel Johnson
Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer. He has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and before that he wrote articles on U.S. history for several small American magazines. His political columns are featured on many websites such as Andrew Breitbart’s BigGovernment.com, BigHollywood.com, and BigJournalism.com, as well as RightWingNews.com, CanadaFreePress.com, StoptheACLU.com, AmericanDaily.com, among many, many others. Mr. Huston is also endlessly amused that one of his articles formed the basis of an article in Germany’s Der Spiegel Magazine in 2008.
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