Going on what little one gets to know here in the 52nd state, I'm inclined to agree with you, for what it's worth. And whatever perfectly regular irregularities pertained in AFL procedures, they pale in comparison next to the role of money in federal elections, and, as your recent posts so eloquently made clear, the outrageous and unprecedented corruption evident in the ascendancy of a pair of duly rejected reactionaries to the Whitehouse. If things get nasty for the AFL good-guys, I'm sure there's a useful set of parallels to be drawn by the right pamphleteer, eh?
BTW, I see in the papers that all the final counts, from hanging chads through dimpled chads to double-holes, put Gore well over the line. Is that getting much coverage stateside?
Cheers, Rob.
>There are times when I cannot tell the difference between union posts made
>on LBO and the rightwingers at freerepublic.com. This whole focus on the
>indictments and even the implication that Trumka is some kind of bad guy is
>sort of nauseating.
>
>Yes, Carey and crew panicked in the election against Hoffa Junior and cut
>some ethical and legal corners which are disgusting, but frankly are par for
>the course in most election systems for government - ie. steering resources
>to those who help out the reelection of incumbents. And it's worth
>remembering that Hoffa Junior did the exact same thing, just in a
>technically legal way. The incumbent, overpaid corrupt status quo local
>leaders used assessments from their salaries (paid out of Teamster funds,
>with those assessments often demanded in pretty coercive ways from
>superiors) to fund Hoffa's campaign, a campaign that had twice the funding
>of Carey.
>
>It's a tragedy that Carey lost and bad the way folks tried to save him, if
>only because it was stupid, but to even place this act anywhere in the same
>category as the usual corruption and illegal activity associated with some
>unions is ridiculous. Yes, incumbent protection is a slippery slope for
>progressives to ever support, but the goals here were pretty damn pure, even
>if the methods weren't.
>
>So it will be a tragedy if Trumka, one of the more progressive AFL leaders,
>is indicted.
>
>-- Nathan Newman