Why did the Teamsters endorse Obama?
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- May
- 5
The International Brotherhood of Teamsters has released tapes of its interviews with presidential candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton to support its position that its endorsement of Obama was not contingent on a quid pro quo that he would end a court consent decree designed to end mob influence.
The tapes were released in response to a story in today’s Wall Street Journal that suggests Obama won the endorsement of the 1.4 million-member union after privately indicating he would work to end the 1989 court decree.
During separate interviews with the Teamsters leadership taped on the same day in March last year, both candidates agreed that the court decree should be reviewed by the next administration.
Obama praised the current president of the union, James Hoffa, for his leadership. “I think that the union has been transformed,’’ Obama said. “I think that’s the assessment generally, and the problem is that you have an administration that hasn’t been particularly friendly to unions here and this union in particular. I think if you’ve got someone in the White House who you know, who you trust and who you have a history with, then you’re going to see a change in terms of how we evaluate with these consent decrees.’’
Obama added that there would be “legal aspects’’ to ending the decree, so he wouldn’t want to act as if it would “suddenly happen.’’ Listen to Obama here: [audio:http://lohud.com/audio/politics/obamaconsent.mp3]
Clinton, in her interview, also praised the union. “I am of the opinion that based on what I have seen over years of observation, you know, this union has really done a tremendous job,’’ she said.
But Clinton did not offer as optimistic a prediction what might ultimately happen to the consent decrees should she become the next president. “I would be very open to looking into that and saying, ‘What are we trying to accomplish here any longer’ and see what the answer is,’’ she told the union leaders. Listen to her here: [audio:http://lohud.com/audio/politics/clintonconsent.mp3]
Appearing this morning on “Good Morning America,’’ Obama distanced himself from the Journal story, which also referred to private conversations he’s had with a Midwest leader of the Teamsters union.
“I wouldn’t make any blanket commitments,’’ Obama said. “What I’ve said is, that we should take a look at what’s been happening over at the Teamsters and at all unions, to make sure that in fact organized labor is able to represent its membership and engage in collective bargaining.’’
When the Teamsters announced their endorsement in late February, union President James Hoffa said it was done after taking a poll of his membership. Hoffa at the time declined to provide details of the poll, but said in a conference call with reporters that it showed Obama would match up better against Republican John McCain.
Teamsters spokesman Brett Caldwell reiterated the role of the poll in a statement released earlier today, adding that the union “endorsed Senator Obama because of his support of fair trade, the Employee Free Choice Act, the creation of a striker replacement law as well as his sponsorship of legislation on the misclassification of workers and the Employer Patriot Act – among many, many other issues.’’
This entry was posted
on Monday, May 5th, 2008 at 8:23 pm by Brian Tumulty.
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This must have been a contest to see which candidate could cozy up the most to the Teamsters. And what a great history they have! Sure.
Exactamente!
ODE TO OBAMA
by Publius II
There once was a man named Obama
His life began with drama
An African Muslim father
An eccentric white mama
Obama’s white grandparents
They gave him a charmed life
Raised on the beaches of Hawaii
Far from ghetto strife
He went to private schools
Fourteen thousand dollars a year
Working-class white folks
They were nowhere near
He attended Columbia
Then Harvard Law
A very soft and liberal upbringing
Something Americans eventually saw
He then went to Chicago
Nation of Islam, Farrakhan, Black Panthers and Jackson
The only friends he made
All from the extreme left-wing faction
He joined a radical church
His Pastor downright insane
Blacks and whites, he said
Think with different parts of their brain
His church praised a man named Cone
With hateful opinions he was filled
He said white people were “the devil”
And Gods who love whites must be killed
Obama first ran for State Senate
With permission from Chicago’s Marxist King
A domestic terrorist named Ayers
Obama kissed his ring
He wrote a book called “Dreams From My Father”
From start to finish a racist rant
After people finally read it
They said: “Obama, no we can’t”
He wrote how he rejected his mother’s race
And that Malcolm X was a hero
People had a clear warning
Obama was a dangerous zero
He was then elected to the U.S. Senate
Obama’s ego grew very bold
He barely served a year
I will run for President was the story he told
He spent millions to stage rallies
The crowds would yell and cheer
But then it all fizzled out
Typical white folks, he said, cling to religion, guns and beer
His wife said America was mean
She was never really proud
Her Black Separatist thesis at Princeton
Became a campaign cloud
People said he was a Muslim
His supporters scoffed and jeered
Then his Black Liberation Church was exposed
And Obama’s ugly head was reared
He tried to recover in a speech on race
The left-wing media offered raves
But he said white folks had an “untrained ear”
And abolitionists in Pennsylvania rolled over in their graves
He claimed to be a uniter
He would bring people together all at once
But after his speech in Philadelphia
He proved to be a demographic dunce
He tried once more to persuade whites
But his bowling was a mess
He rolled a 37
Like a 5-year-old girl in a dress
He then played basketball
He drove the ball to the rack
But when all was said and done
He nearly had a heart attack
He said damn those white voters
Their Mutual Funds I will tax
I’ll double the capital gains rate
Like an old-school Liberal hack
He opposed a gas tax holiday
He said it wasn’t a winner
$40 wasn’t much he said
Just the weekly budget for the average family’s dinner
He wouldn’t cover his heart
As the National Anthem played
It’s a meaningless gesture he said
But Americans felt betrayed
He wouldn’t wear a flag pin
It was against his One World view
It doesn’t matter he said
And the American people stewed
He first called terrorist Ayers his friend
Then said this man he didn’t really know
More deceit and cover-ups
Obama’s lies began to grow
Farrakhan, Jackson and Sharpton
Three of Obama’s greatest fans
He tried hiding them in the closet
So not to further offend the white man
Then came his anti-American Pastor
Obama’s mentor for 20 years
He preened, shucked and jived
White people rose up and sneered
NBC and the New York Times
They tried each day to save Obama’s campaign
But real Americans said “FU”
And Obama spiraled down the drain
His name was Barrack Hussein Obama
Running for a second Jimmy Carter term
Weak on National Security
A little, pacifist worm
The radical left-wing Democrats
A Presidential race lost once again
Is it really a surprise
They’ve lost 7 of the last 10?
People seemed surprised with politicians act like politicians. Politics is about who gets what, where, and how. To get elected you promise as much as you can, to as many as you can, the how can be figured out latter. No one will begrudge Obama about this. Policy is not issue for Obama, and “that kind of language is unhelpful and divisive”. Obama is a happening, an event, and its going to happen so we all better just start getting used to the idea.
What’s the matter, Tumulty, you don’t like Republican poetry?