AFL-CIO Warns Reactionary Democrats That The Gig Is Up-- No More Stabbing Workers In The Back

When Blue America endorsed Savannah state Senator Regina Thomas' campaign against reactionary Blue Dog John Barrow last year, we were blindsighted when Rahm Emanuel bamboozled Barack Obama into endorsing the conservative Barrow, who went on to win the primary and win re-election in the heavily Democratic district and then to systematically oppose almost every proposal Obama has made to better the lives of working families. This has long been Emanuel's modus operandi and it goes a long way towards explaining how the Democrats can have strong majorities in both houses of Congress but are unable to pass progressive legislation in the face of concerted efforts by the GOP and Emanuel's Blue Dog and DLC shills. But we were even more blindsided when we were informed that a huge labor union was about to endorse Barrow, a dedicated enemy of organized labor and, at the time, the only Democrat to be endorsed by the most vicious anti-union political action committee fronting for the GOP, BIPAC. We persuaded the union to not go through with the endorsement, although they had already sent in their $5,000 check. In fact, Barrow, a long-time corporate shill and dyed-in-the-wool conservative, and an implacable enemy of working families, has gotten $775,700 in campaign contributions from labor unions.

Of course, Barrow is hardly the only member of Congress working against the interests of their members who have been getting huge contributions from unions. On the Senate side, notorious corporate shills like Mary Landrieu (D-LA- $1,097,750), Arlen Specter (R-D-PA- $1,075,859), Max Baucus (D-MT- $1,014,255), Ben Nelson (D-NE- $795,136), Evan Bayh (D-IN- $661,361), Mark Pryor (D-AR- $591,960), Blanche Lincoln (D-AR- $580,395), and Joe Lieberman (I-CT- $489,397) have cleaned up at labor's expense, only to stab working men and women in the back over and over and over. On the House side it's every bit as disgusting, with Blue Dogs using the hard earned money of working men and women to get elected and re-elected so that they can support a right-wing agenda against working families!

Unions wasted nearly $2,000,000 on conservative shill Nick Lampson (Blue Dog-TX) before he was defeated last year. Other Blue Dogs who work particularly hard against the interests of their members but who have been lavished with donations from unions include:
Earl Pomeroy (Blue Dog-ND- $1,823,073)
Leonard Boswell (Blue Dog-IA- $1,739,857)
Baron Hill (Blue Dog-IN- $1,735,390)
Bart Gordon (Blue Dog-TN- $1,407,100)
Don Young (R-AK- $1,279,531)
Frank LoBiondo (R-NJ- $1,230,111)
Dennis Moore (Blue Dog-KS- $1,172,306)
Mike Ross (Blue Dog-AR- $1,162,950)
Jim Matheson (Blue Dog-UT- $1,131,706)
Collin Peterson (Blue Dog- MN- $1,088,594)
Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (Blue Dog-SD- $1,033,456)

That barely scratches the surface of a list as long as my arm of anti-worker congressmen who have gotten large donations from labor unions. But... according to one of America's most brilliant and outstanding labor leaders, AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka, that's all about to change.

Addressing the Sheet Metal Workers International Association in Las Vegas this week Trumka indicated that the honeymoon between Labor and reactionary Democrats-- whether Blue Dogs or the DLC corporatists-- was coming to an end. As a Daily Kos diarist pointed out today, the Sheet Metal Workers union was the first "to have suspended all campaign donations to ALL Democratic candidates until the Employee Free Choice Act and a bill addressing real Health Care Reform are passed... In case anyone forgot, Labor Unions and not the health insurance industry or the Chamber of Commerce have been the biggest financial donor to the Blue Dogs and centrists in the Democratic Party."

Watch Trumka warning Blue Dogs and ConservaDems like Blanche Lincoln-- who now has an interesting grassroots opponent, a member of the Teamsters union-- and Max Baucus that the days of wine and roses are over.




UPDATE: Kent Conrad Wants To See If Trumka Was Just Joking

Conservative Democrat Kent Conrad (ND) must be so conflicted. He's on the Senate Finance Committee where's he's been pushing a cockamamie co-op plan the Big Insurance companies love but won't do a damn bit of good for struggling working families in North Dakota. Meanwhile, he's scarfed up $1,181,287 from unions who are outraged that he's stabbing working families in the back by declaring he will not vote for a bill that includes a public option. The Insurance Industry has given him $828,787 and he took in another $1,349,363 from the Medical-Industrial Complex. Am I saying Kent Conrad is a corrupt sack of shit? Jump to your own conclusions and stop putting words in my mouth.