Of political money not well spent, as in the previous post, let’s talk about the huge – truly huge – amounts of money unions spent to try to get their anti-secret-ballot initiative passed. Well, Arlen Specter, of all people, just killed the card-check initiative all by his lonesome.
Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) announced Tuesday he will oppose card check, giving an apparent death blow to the most important congressional issue to organized labor.
Specter made the dramatic announcement in a floor speech. His opposition means Democrats can count on a maximum of 59 votes to move the bill forward, one short of the 60 required to clear Senate rules.
Oh, the money thing? Just this:
To say this is a huge and unexpected blow to Big Labor is to understate the enormity of the embarrassment. They spent, by some calculations, close to a billion dollars in local, state, and federal races with card check as their Number One priority. They did not get their money’s worth.
This is the first I heard that figure, so I can’t say it was actually that much. But it was a lot. A real lot. And union rank and file gave even more in time and effort. (That may figure into the calculation of contributions).
Since it is looking more and more likely that Chris “AIG Bonuses Enabler” Dodd will be gone after the next election, the unions may have hit their high water mark.
And come up short.
