Democratic Left_ list (UFT)

[Alan Jacobson]

Hoffa has one single goal that he thinks about from the moment he wakes up to
when he shuts off the lights at night: getting the Administration to remove
the federal oversight over the union's affairs. Hoffa has cultivated a number
of GOP operatives (like the arch-slug Hoekstra, from western Michigan) in
pursuit of that goal and therefore, in a narrow and self-serving way, being
one of the labor whores for Bush makes crystal clear sense.

As for the Carpenters? Don't have any insight into that one.

Alan Jacobson
Detroit

On Thu, 17 Oct 2002 10:28:14 -0400 Nathan Newman <nathan at newman.org> wrote:


> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Peter K." 
> >Hey and while you third party folks will grit
> your teeth, throwing a few
> >endorsements to republicans is probably far
> more effective in making Dems
> >work for the pro-labor vote than endorsing a
> Green.
> >
> >-- Nathan
> 
> -I don't know about that. The Teamsters and the
> Carpenters have been
> -coyly winking and smiling at Bush and what did
> they get in return?
> -Taft-Hartley, that's what.
> 
> The Teamsters and the Carpenters are idiots--
> you don't even wink at a
> politician whose goal in life is to fuck you. 
> What makes sense for labor is
> at points, in very selective cases, to reward
> the pro-labor Republicans that
> still exist, especially when they are almost
> guaranteed reelection. They may
> not be as dependable as progressive Dems, but
> it keeps a few cosponsors of
> labor legislation and some agents to push the
> agenda when the Dems are not
> in control of a chamber.  The point is not to
> endorse many GOPers but just a
> few for very strategic reasons-- same reason I
> would support Green
> endorsements in some cases, but only as part of
> a general coordinated
> strategy of moving the Dems, not as suicide
> "run even against Wellstone"
> purist approach, as the Greens currently do.
> 
> -- Nathan Newman
> 
> 
>