Infighting in Arkansas Democratic Primary Switches on the Light for President Clinton
With no senate candidate receiving the necessary votes to secure the Arkansas Democratic nomination, the hotly contested race has gone to a run-off pitting incumbent Blanche Lincoln against the union-backed Lt. Gov. Bill Halter. Lincoln lost favor with labor by voicing reservations about card-check leading unions to look for a candidate who they can better control. Enter Bill Halter.
Former President Bill Clinton, a close friend of Lincoln, vented about the infighting brought about by labor's unwillingness to support Lincoln, an incumbent, solid Democrat, with a good chance in the general.
Via CNN:
Reading from a Washington Post article that quoted a national labor union leader saying that forcing Lincoln to “fight this kind of fight” might make other senators “think twice about it,” Clinton said that national labor unions had decided to make Lincoln “the poster child for what happens when a Democrat crosses them.”
“In other words, this is about using you and manipulating your votes to terrify members of Congress and members of the Senate from other states,” Clinton told the crowd. “Now if you want to be used that way, have at it.”[emphasis added].
The 42nd president continued to rip labor unions, which have largely supported him in the past.
“They admit here, they don’t necessarily favor her opponent. They want to make her a poster child. They want you to be something besides a voter for your children and your community and your future. They want you to help them make a poster,” Clinton said.
“If you want to do that, go back to grade school,” he added.
Clinton summed up the tough tactics from unions as “Washington games.”
“That’s what happens up there. People get all caught up in their little games and they turn you into a cartoon instead of a real person and they perform reverse plastic surgery on you. Even if you’re as pretty as Blanche, they can make you ugly. That’s what they do. It’s all a game. This is not a game, this is your life,” the former president said emphatically.
Sounding like a child who first learns that his parents are not omniscient, President Clinton states that unions look to “terrify members of Congress and members of the Senate” that cross them. This known phenomenon is not confined to Arkansas politics, unions have been bullying representatives for years. Labor’s power stems from their vast bank accounts (thank you union dues) which can make or break a candidate. Oscillating between narratives about worker advocacy and the Democratic Party, the labor movement cares about neither. Unions are in the process of bankrupting states while ignoring their workers underfunded pensions. They consistently throw more electable Democrats under the bus for candidates they can whip into line.
The Washington Post writes about the political stranglehold unions have in liberal Montgomery County, Maryland:
We respect the public employees in both counties and their dedication to public service. Clean parks, cheerful classrooms, safe streets, bustling libraries — the work of these employees helps keep these counties such attractive places to live. But when 80 percent of all outlays are related to personnel, labor contracts that get out of whack can endanger the public welfare. . . . The cozy ties between elected officials and public employees unions in Montgomery have formed the backdrop for a drumbeat of reports about county employees’ bountiful benefits, perks and abuses. . . . Montgomery’s teachers union has wielded such outsized electoral clout that politicians who received the teachers’ endorsement in the most recent elections reached into their pockets and wrote checks to the union.
It took a personal attack on one of Bill Clinton’s close friends for him to speak out against unions' harsh tactics. What will it take for Democrat members in office to?
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