Unions Gear up to Attack McCain
By Warner Todd Huston Posted in 2008 — Comments (1) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
Of course, no one could expect less of organized labor but to attack Republicans, even John McCain. But the amount of money proposed to be spent to destroy McCain really makes one wonder if every last union member would approve of such vast expenditures of their dues money?
To answer that question, the AFL-CIO, for its part, intends to "talk to their members," at least according to the Associated Press. In fact, if one weren't paying too close attention, one would think that the union is asking permission about who to endorse -- and if you believe that I have a bridge to sell you...
The AFL-CIO, which has not endorsed anyone in the Democratic primary, announced Wednesday that it is sending more than 6,000 of its people to more than 22 states during the next two weekends to talk to more than 200,000 union voters about McCain.
As if their not endorsing anyone at this time is meaningful? Hardly. Besides, what does it matter if it is so obvious that they are attacking McCain? By process of elimination, if the unions don't support McCain, who might they support? Answer: ANY Democrat! So, their specific endorsement is pretty meaningless.
The SEIU is also "focusing on McCain."
Meanwhile, the nation's largest union, the Service Employees International Union, is increasing its focus on the likely Republican presidential nominee. The union's political action committee is already running commercials critical of McCain's health care plan.
So, the unions are gearing up to attack McCain. The sort of massive union spending we always see against Republicans could be made a bit less overwhelming, though, if we could get laws passed all across the nation so that members can opt out for their dues to be spent on political efforts of which they do not agree. But, these sorts of laws, while making headway in places like Ohio and Washington state, have made headway, a landslide Democratic victory in November will put a major crimp in the success of future efforts and further step on the rights of individual union members.
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you just need meaningful enforcement of existing federal precedent. Under Hudson and Beck v. CWA, an employee's dues cannot be spent on "social, fraternal, or political activities" if the employee objects to that expenditure. This applies to both public and private employees and is premised on the 1st Am. to the US Constitution and thus trumps state laws and Democrat state attorneys general. This has been settled law in the public sector since Hudson in the mid-'80s and Beck in the late '80s extended it to the private sector. GHWB issued an EO mandating compliance by any union company doing business with the federal government. Recission of that EO was one of WJC's first acts and GWB has done nothing to try to force any compliance nor to restore the order as far as I know.
The problem is that while the Public Integrity Section of the USDOJ could find plenty of time and staff to spend the last two years attacking Republicans here in Alaska, it has not done a thing to audit, investigate, and charge unions that are openly and notoriously violating the Constitutional rights of compelled members and fee payers nationwide.
So all over the nation in both the public and private sectors objectors are on their own to assert their rights. In the Blue States, the government sides with the unions since it is usually owned by them, e.g., WA. So you wind up with private citizens spending their own time and money, sometimes aided by private entities such as the Evergreen Foundation or the National Right to Work Legal Defense Fund, against the unlimited legal resources of states and the almost unlimited resources of the unions.
This is another of the many failings of the Bush Administration's Departments of Labor and Justice, both of which are and act as if they are still under Democrat control below the press release and sound bite level in DC. The USDOJ could dry up all that union money in a matter of weeks by just serving a few subpoenae, but GWB is too nice, or something, for that.
In Vino Veritas