[lbo-talk] The Politics of Fear

[JBrown72073 at cs.com]

mpollak wrote:
>Did Carter really have a veto proof majority?  It seems astonishing 
>considering his legislative record (or lack thereof).
>
>But if he did, and this really happened, it's quite a formidable argument
>in favor of the labor party strategy.
>
>Michael

My source on that is Mazzocchi--at the time he was working as OCAW Leg. Dir.  

 The 95th  Congress ('77-'79) Senate consisted of 61 Democrats, 38 Repubs & 1 
independent.  The House was 292 Dems and 143 Repubs.   

As we know, 60 are needed in the Senate to defeat a filibuster, which was 
mounted against the weak labor law reform in question, which had passed 257-163 
in the House in 1977.  It was filibustered in the Senate, and although there 
were 61 sitting Democrats, it failed, since only 58 would vote to end the 
filibuster.

I think during that same Congress the construction trades tried to reform 
common situs picketing and couldn't get anything through, either (Ford had vetoed 
a bill earlier).  I know a postalworker who says watching the Carter admin. 
made him a socialist.

Cue Nathan to tell us how none of this should really reflect badly on the 
Democrats, though.

Jenny Brown