Card (Reality) Check
The Opinion Journal takes the Democrats to the woodshed - hard - over the passage yesterday by the House of the "card check" legislation. The vote - which will go nowhere as a law - was a payback to the unions that invested so much time and money in the elections. Kimberly Strassel points out that this is a major problem for the Democrats.
Up to now, Speaker Nancy Pelosi had kept her troops in line and her party's liberal wing in check. The vaunted first "100 hours" was run like a military operation, and revolved around a carefully chosen legislative agenda that would unify every faction in her party. It was small potatoes, but it worked, and it was a lesson in how Democrats can practice smart politics.
The card check, in contrast, is a lesson in how the party's liberal base forces Democrats to back political losers. The legislation's only purpose is to give unions an unfair advantage in organizing, namely by eliminating the secret ballot in union elections and instead allowing thugs to openly bully workers into joining up. Americans understand and despise this, with polls showing 90% of the public thinks card check is a racket.
Democrats therefore left themselves wide open for their first public drubbing. The card check gave Republicans a rare opening to beat the daylights out of the new majority, successfully accusing it of trashing democratic elections and shutting down free speech. It unified the business community, which put aside its disagreements on health care and immigration to instead team up to make the vote as painful as possible for Ms. Pelosi's moderate wing. Even the liberal press jumped ship.
And all this, meanwhile, for a vote that was largely symbolic. President Bush has vowed that a card check law is dead on arrival. And that assumes the legislation could even make it through a Senate filibuster–which it can't. As low points go, this was the lowest the new majority has had so far.
Most Americans are going to see the card check as anti-democratic and very, very likely to lead to intimidation and abuse. Big labor may have scored with the Democrats in Congress, but they may have actually damaged the party in the next election. Pelosi handed the Republicans the club with which to beat her.
By J, Friday, 2 March , 2007 @ 9:22 am
“namely by eliminating the secret ballot in union elections and instead allowing thugs to openly bully workers”
As opposed to what, the status quo in which management thugs openly bully workers not to sign up?
By J.S., Friday, 2 March , 2007 @ 9:47 am
Big labor may have scored with the Democrats in Congress, but they may have actually damaged the party in the next election.
You can’t really believe this … do you really think this bill is going to be an issue in the 2008 election?
By Gaius, Friday, 2 March , 2007 @ 9:50 am
For some it will be. Nice baseless union talking point there J. Complete nonsense, though.
By tommo, Friday, 2 March , 2007 @ 10:00 am
The Opinion Journal is wrong about everything. Why should anyone pay attention now?
It’s like The Current Occupant of the White House. He and his cronies have done NOTHING but damage to our beloved nation. Why would anyone believe they know what their doing now?
Poor right-wingers. Everything you believe in is wrong. So sad.
By Abby, Friday, 2 March , 2007 @ 11:07 am
To be fair, the WSJ editorial page is no friend of the average American worker.
They ran an editorial a few weeks ago decrying how overpaid teachers (union) are. Do most people really feel teachers are grossly overpaid and underworked?
They ran an additional editorial this week saying how good it is for Mexican truck drivers to have open access to US deliveries, because then the overpaid American truckers (union) won’t get the work. I know a number of truck drivers, most of them are not Teamsters, and their wages are already declining.
The WSJ very much wants guest worker programs for immigrants.
At the same time, the WSJ editorial board has never seen a multi-million dollar bonus as a bad thing for a company’s bottom line, but minimal pay raises for lower employees are not to be tolerated, because it would “hurt” the company.
By David L, Friday, 2 March , 2007 @ 11:34 am
IF Mrs Pelosi believes that public ballots are more democratic than secret ballots, she one, ought allow a roll call vote of William Jefferson appointment to the Homeland Security Committee and two vote eliminate curtains on voting booths.
By yd, Friday, 2 March , 2007 @ 12:53 pm
gaius,
what’s baseless about j’s point? the reason walmart can’t get unionized is because it is openly hostile to anyone who expresses and interest. and when i tried to talk about a union at my job, my services were “suddenly” no longer required. i didn’t get fired of course but management made sure i didn’t want to be there.
this law is necessary to level the playing field between management and workers. i really see it as the walmart bill because if it passes i guarantee walmart wil be unionized within a year.
By legaleagle, Friday, 2 March , 2007 @ 1:38 pm
do you really think this bill is going to be an issue in the 2008 election?
Oh God, yes, J.S.. This is going to be big; I mean BIG. It’ll knock the Iraq war right off the front pages, and I expect massive defections from the Democratic center over the issue, and perhaps violent street demonstrations. After all, the vast majority of Americans have an obsessive hatred of everything connected with unions, just like the extreme Republican right. Besides, the issue has united the “business community” in opposition to the measure, and we know how vital the support of that community has been to the Democrats success thus far. Just look at what happened when the business-community juggernaut last unified in this manner. The issue? Minimum wage. Yup, that was a real killer.
All I can say is that I pray every night for “drubbbings” like this one to continue as long as possible. Nothing would be better than to see the Republicans try to obstruct such legislative measures with a filibuster. Indeed, it would be insane for the Democrats to give even one penny in tax cuts to get the minimum wage law passed. Pass it straght-up, and let the Republicans filibuster away. Let’s hope the same thing happens with this bill. Better yet, let’s have Bush veto it, and earn the reputation for partisanship and ideological fanaticism he so richly deserves.
By J, Friday, 2 March , 2007 @ 2:18 pm
You all don’t get it, do you? It just demonstrates the truth that GW Bush is anti-working man/woman.
GW Bush even says it to those who come to his $5000.00 a plate political dinners, and I quote, “I am one of you”.
Just another example of the Bush Cheney class warfare.
By Robert, Friday, 2 March , 2007 @ 2:48 pm
Love Pelosi’s first 100 hours.
What a way to show how the GOP ignored Americans while handing the store to corporate cronies for 6 years.
I’ll probably take grief for this comment, since I mentioned Pelosi and didn’t mention her pantsuits.
By crosspatch, Friday, 2 March , 2007 @ 4:49 pm
To be fair, labor unions are no friend to the average american worker either. They extort their pay and then drive the cost of labor up to the point where the jobs are then simply sent offshore.
The government floated the idea, which the unions soon shot down, of promoting government employees based on merit. The unions wouldn’t hear of it. They want pay based only on training and seniority. So if a guy takes a class (doesn’t matter how much of it “stuck”) and didn’t die or didn’t quit, he gets a raise. It drives out the real talent and leaves the labor pool filled with lackies. Unions have done lately to harm American productivity rather than enhance it. I don’t care how long a person has been at the job, if they can’t find their hips with both hands … they need to go. Union shops are spirit crushing places to work in for bright, talented people. They can’t get ahead because of the dolts who have been there longer.
Just try to get an incompetent teacher or bureaucrat fired because they suck at their job. If they have been there long enough, it is nearly impossible. It is a dumb system and the unions need to recognize that or be allowed to perish.
By Quilly Mammoth, Saturday, 3 March , 2007 @ 5:31 am
NEWS FLASH!! George “Dubya” Bush not to run in 2008!!
How much of a deal this will be in 2008 depends on whether it can be spun to show that the Democrats aren’t really interested in democracy. Much of that depends on how the Democrats perform in the next 14 months.
Open voting is anti-democracy. If the Congress really wanted to help workers it would find a way to bring balance to the “Right to Work” and “at will” laws many states have. That would help all workers and not just the wealthy and organized Union Bloc. Moreover, it still won’t help Walmart get unionized because the law only affects Union elections _after_ unionization. (some talking points are just so silly).
This vote will have consequences. For example Nancy Boyda won a squeaker in Kansas’ 2nd district in part because she attracted a lot of moderate Republican voters on the issue of Conservative Republican’s links to special interest groups, ie Big Business and Big Insurance. One of her most effective campaign platforms was bringing tax reform to small and independent businesses. She campaigned that Big Business received tax breaks they didn’t need while small business couldn’t afford to provide health care.
She actually has one of the best “moderate” platforms regardless of party affiliation. But this is going to be used against her. Boyda, like so many other freshman, Democrat members of Congress, ran as a moderate/conservative Democrat. They are what won the House…not San Francisco Values and the Nutzroots. And the continued leftward pull of Pelosi is going to have consequences. It may not win the majority for the Republicans in 2008 but I’ll bet Boyda goes back to private life.
By Quilly Mammoth, Saturday, 3 March , 2007 @ 10:20 am
Let me correct one point above. (5:30 AM posting with a sick baby)
Should read “…_after_ enough cards are signed.”
While the new law promises to go harder after those companies which terminate organizers it’s hard to see how that will work in “Right to Work” and “At will” states.