Imagine if you had the President of the United States on your side, a majority in the House of Representatives and your party had just secured that mythical “60th vote” in the Senate, I think you would expect to see some results.
Well, apparently if you thought that, you would be wrong. This week the New York Times, the official record of the democrat party, declared that the card check provision has been dropped from the bill. Of course, in April the folks over at Real Clear Politics were able to make the call on April 5th shortly after Senator Specter abandoned ship.
But hey, what are a few months of lag time in the life a daily newspaper?
Anyway, the Times piece sprinkles in a little happy talk about the power of the moderates and how union leaders are ok — because it still screws businesses in other ways. However, you have to keep reading to get to the most important point about the defeat of the card check provision:
The card-check provision was so central to the legislation that it was known as “the card-check bill.” Labor had called the bill its No. 1 objective, and both labor and business deployed their largest, most expensive lobbying campaigns ever in the battle over it.
So, remind me one more time. The Democrats have both Houses of Congress AND the President of the United States and the unions can’t get their number one priority across the finish line.
It would appear the filibuster proof senate is actually “FINO” – Filibuster in Name Only.
As I often do, when I am looking to “surf gloat” after a defeat for the left, I immediately click to the reliable Daily Kos, and as usual the anger was delightfully satisfying.
……… it didn’t take long for enough pols that had run as pro-EFCA sticking their knives in the backs of working people to eliminate the threat that anything unacceptable to corporate hegemony could be passed. And f*** the working people, because we don’t count, we’re just there to be conned, used, and thrown away like so much toilet paper.
You know, the guy/gal has a point.
What’s next for card check? Well, first of all nothing is truly dead in Washington. Senator Thune (R-SD) was quoted as saying that card check, “isn’t dead yet and could even be tacked onto another bill and pass the Senate with little or no notice.”
Meanwhile the Wall Street Journal reminds readers that any version of the bill, with or without the “card check” provision “is still a job killer.”
How comforting.
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