Arlen Specter has announced that he will not vote for cloture on the Employee Free Choice Act, after co-sponsoring the bill in 2005, and voting for cloture in 2007.
"The problems of a recession make this a particularly bad time to enact Employee's choice legislation," he said. "Employers understandably complain that adding a burden would result in further job losses. If efforts are unsuccessful to give labor sufficient bargaining power through amendments to the [National Labor Relations Act] then I would be willing to reconsider Employees choice legislation when the economy returns to normalcy. I am announcing my decision now because I have consulted with a very large number of interested parties on both sides and I have made up my mind."
What a load of bull. "The economy is suffering, so let's not empower Americans to seek higher wages and increase their spending power?" If FDR had thought that way, we never would have passed the National Labor Relations Act in 1935 -- during the heart of the Great Depression -- and never would have enjoyed the middle-class wealth gains of the '40s and '50s which were made possible by increased union density.
Perhaps Specter is so freaked out by a 2010 primary challenge from the right -- probably from former-Rep. Pat Toomey -- that he felt he couldn't stick to his guns on Employee Free Choice. If so, it's shaping up to be a classic case of winning the battle and losing the war, as it's hard to imagine Specter surviving a concerted Democratic effort in increasingly blue Pennsylvania without the longstanding support of organized labor. And one would have to believe that such support will not be forthcoming in the wake of his betrayal on the single most important piece of labor law reform in 50 years.
Looks like he just doesn't want to get reelected.
As for the future of the Employee Free Choice Act:
[W]hile it is a setback for the legislation's chances, Democrats are not conceding defeat. According to the Huffington Post's Ryan Grim, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid declared after Specter's speech that "He's not the only Republican who has indicated a willingness to consider something being done... He's not the only suspect."
We shall see. Of course, the underlying problem here is that the Republican Party has apparently decided that it can get away with filibustering every piece of legislation it doesn't wholeheartedly endorse.
