Oh, seriously. Democrats are whining about, heaven forbid, a bit of pressure from unions to actually vote correctly on fast track and the Trans Pacific Partnership. Grow up--and if you can't cast a vote for workers, go be a lobbyist.
This made me cheer and laugh at the same time:
The AFL-CIO was blunt in the call that went out to Rep. Scott Peters, a Democrat who represents San Diego: Vote yes on fast-track authority and the Trans-Pacific Partnership, people familiar with the conversation recall, and they’d spend a million dollars to knock him out in next year’s primary. If he managed to win, they’d drop another million against him in the general election.
The real fight over the trade agenda has always been in the House, and that’s where organized labor has been focusing for months. The aggressive effort has left even members who’ll be voting labor’s way bruised, and others who’ll be supporting President Barack Obama anxious enough that many won’t discuss their experiences publicly, instead dispatching staffers to speak on their behalf.
“They were very heavy-handed. And it was not appreciated. And it will not be forgotten,” said one Democratic staffer for a member who will be voting no on trade, as the unions want.
As I
wrote a couple of months ago, the AFL-CIO had already begun to be clear: if you vote for this crap, forget about getting our money.
And I'd give money for this:
Or, at a minimum, that they’ll choose one member to make an example of, but they won’t say which, yet. Could be Peters, who’s in an already marginal Democratic district, or his fellow San Diego Rep. Sue Davis. Could be Bera, or Fresno Rep. Jim Costa, or any of the other “yes” or potential “yes” votes in California, Oregon and Washington state, where efforts have been the most intense.
That included two West Coast Democrats who were warned they’d be facing $2 million and $1 million in ads, respectively, according to a source familiar with the threats. One was told that the money would be dumped in the month before Election Day 2016 — with the labor group involved promising that the content would not be trade-related, but personal attacks found effective in 2014 poll testing.
Hell, yes:
One Democratic member said labor’s intensity on the issue is telling: “I haven’t seen this look in their eyes in a long time.”[emphasis added]
Ten years ago (god, has it been that long?), I wrote that labor
should punish the 15 Democrats who voted for the Central American Free Trade Agreement (a blog post
that earned me
an attack from The New York Times editorial board). Among those Democrats was William "Dollar Bill" Jefferson who eventually went to jail for an un-related corruption charge (
uh, they found the cash in his freezer...).
One of the more odious members of Congress on trade and a CAFTA 15 member has been Gregory Meeks, who represents a district of hard-working people in Queens where the unemployment rate is over 11 percent. He should have been taken out back then in a primary--and he's poised to vote "yes" on this crap to.
Point is: it's been high time that labor take out some of these people in primaries. I believe that had one or two of the CAFTA 15 faced labor-financed primaries a decade ago, we'd be in better shape today to defeat so-called "Free trade."
So, this is welcome news. Stop whining and cast the right votes.
