The National Journal is reporting that union leaders on the AFL-CIO's executive committee are discussing possibly backing primary challenges to certain Democratic senators.
United Steelworkers President Leo W. Gerard said of the labor chieftains' discussion, "A number of us expressed our dismay with some of the senators from the Democratic Party who have held up and helped delay not only the passage of the health care bill but all kinds of other things that would help middle-class workers."
The prospect of encouraging Democratic primary challenges will be raised with the Steelworkers' executive board when it meets next month, he added. Three senators' names will be brought up specifically, Gerard said: Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas, and Ben Nelson of Nebraska. Lincoln is up for re-election this year; the terms of Lieberman and Nelson run through 2012.
"I, for one, am not prepared to work for Democrats who are going to help play that Republican game of just trying to stop legislation."
Yes!!! It's time to fix the Senate and it begins with removing some Senators.
It's time for tough tactics. Those who help obstruct the Senate must pay a price. It is they who have defeated much of President Obama's program to date. The Senate is broken and we must fix it. One way is to remove Democrats who obstruct. We must make examples. Blanche Lincoln is running in 2010. She needs to lose.
And Gerald McEntee, president of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees uses the "C' word, yes, Jimmy Carter:
And McEntee skewered the administration's proposed freeze on discretionary domestic spending. "In my judgment, the cuts are going to be made in order to appease what they see as the [party's] right [flank]," he said. "It sounds so Jimmy Carteresque."
This was discussed in the January 25, 2009 meeting of the executive committee.
Randi Weingarten of the American Federation of Teachers here speaks about Democrats who talk in abstract economic terms and do not seem to care how their policies affect working people:
"When some elected officials, or some administration officials, talk about macroeconomic policy and start justifying that when regular Americans are hurting, it makes people angry," she added.
The National Journal
Other unions also are mulling over primary challenges:
Meeting in Washington on January 21-22, SEIU's board voiced frustration over how little progress Obama's agenda has made, particularly in the Senate.
The National Journal
Richard Trumka, head of the AFL-CIO, earlier this month laid out working people's vision for America. Here's part of it:
In 2010, our elected leaders must choose between continuing the policies of the past or striking out on a new economic course for America--a course that will reverse the damaging trend toward greater inequality that is crippling our nation.
At this moment, the voices of America's working women and men must be heard in Washington--not the voices of bankers and speculators for whom it always seems to be the best of times, but the voices of those for whom the New Year brings pink slips and givebacks, hollowed-out health care, foreclosures and pension freezes- the roll call of an economy that long ago stopped working for most of us.
Today I want to talk to you about the labor movement's vision for our nation.
Working people want an American economy that works for them--that creates good jobs, where wealth is fairly shared, and where the economic life of our nation is about solving problems like the threat of climate change rather than creating problems like the foreclosure crisis. We know that growing inequality undermines our ability to grow as a nation - by squandering the talents and the contributions of our people and consigning entire communities to stagnation and failure.
snip
Too often Washington falls into the grip of ambivalence about the fundamental purpose of government. Is it to protect wealthy elites and gently encourage them to be more charitable? Or is it to look after the vast majority of the American people?
snip
This is the American future the labor movement is working for. Our political leaders have a choice. They can work with us for a future where the middle class is secure and growing, where inequality is on the decline and where jobs provide ladders out of poverty. Or they can work for a future where the profits of insurance companies, speculators and outsourcers are secure. There is no middle ground. Working America is waiting for an answer. We are in a "show me" kind of mood, and time is running out.
TPM: Transcript of Trumka Speech at the National Press Club
I hope unions will be active this election in ridding us of the Conservedems who have done so much damage.
Here's where we can start:
Draft Bill Halter Facebook Group
The Lt. Governor of Arkansas, Bill Halter, may run against Blanche Lincoln. He's a definite upgrade.
And the SEIU and other unions have paid off his previous campaign debt:
AR-SEN: SEIU to help Bill Halter retire campaign debt
AR-SEN: SEIU to help Bill Halter retire campaign debt
by Jed Lewison
Fri Dec 18, 2009 at 10:21:35 AM PST
Here's a big development with potential implications for the 2010 U.S. Senate race in Arkansas: according to an SEIU official, SEIU is joining forces with other unions to work to retire the campaign debt of Arkansas Lt. Governor Bill Halter from his Lt. Gov. race.
It's time to rid oursleves of those conservedems who have undercut the solutions to our big problems.
I'm with the unions on this.
Now, more than ever, this is the key question: which side are you on?
Come all of you good workers,
Good news to you I’ll tell,
Of how that good old union
Has come in here to dwell.
cho: Which side are you on?
Which side are you on?
Which side are you on?
Which side are you on?
My daddy was a miner,
And I’m a miner’s son,
And I’ll stick with the union,
Till every battle’s won.
They say in Harlan County,
There are no neutrals there.
You’ll either be a union man,
Or a thug for J.H. Blair.
Oh, workers can you stand it?
Oh, tell me how you can.
Will you be a lousy scab,
Or will you be a man ?
Don’t scab for the bosses,
Don’t listen to their lies.
Us poor folks haven’t got a chance,
Unless we organize.
Update I: GRAB A BROOM!!!
From cosmic debris in the comments:
Grab a broom (2+ / 0-)
Recommended by:TomP, blueocean
and sweep out the obstructionists who prevent functional governance.
The moppers will certainly keep mopping, but it is high time to bring out the sweepers. Let's all work together to clean up this damn government so we can solve so many of the problems that are tearing our people down.
Thanks for the news, Tom.
Who you jivin' with that
by cosmic debris on Fri Jan 29, 2010 at 07:49:42 AM PST
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