Last night, in the Natural State of Arkansas, something somewhat unnatural happened.
Incumbent U.S. Senator Blanche Lincoln, against all odds and overwhelming political prognostication, defeated Lt. Gov. Bill Halter in a run-off election in the Democrat Primary.
In spite of being lambasted by millions of dollars worth of negative TV ads, mailers, and phone calls paid for by SEIU and the AFL-CIO, as well a tidal surge of anti-incumbency, she won with 52% of the vote.
Why is this race important to me, an Ohioan, you ask?
Well, I was on the staff of SEIU for nearly five years. More specifically, on the staff of SEIUDistrict 1199 W/K/O, which represents some 14,000 workers in West By God Virginia, Kentucky, and Ohio.
I left my last position with them, which was that of Political Director in 2002, but I continued to follow news about SEIU.
When I left SEIU in 2002, it was because I noticed a profound change seeping into the organization. Led by Andy Stern and Dave Regan both of whom I worked for and with, SEIU was becoming “different”.
When I started, organizing new workers was the focus, because it was important that overworked and underpaid health care workers, nursing home aides, and public sector employees made a decent wage and felt a modicum of respect.
Certainly any political pressure that can be applied, aids in meeting that goal, but the penultimate ideal remained achieving dignity for under-appreciated and under-compensated workers.
SEIU in general and my local specifically, were different from other unions. The members actually did run the business of the union.
It was not a top down, monolithic union run by sweaty union kingpins wearing seven gold chains around their necks, sporting pinky rings, and smoking cheap cigars.
Things began to change a couple of years into my stint with SEIU. Votes on proposed by-laws, dues increases, and political activities by the members were no longer quite as open in a sense.
Sure, votes were still cast as always, but those of us on the staff were “encouraged” to make certain that our particular group of members voted in the way the “union” deemed best.
At this point SEIU was growing, and growing quickly. It was the only union actually adding thousands of members a year. SEIU was in a word, successful.
And maybe, that was what constituted the change in philosophy.
SEIU was becoming a victim of its own success. As SEIU grew to 2 million members, decisions had to be made more and more, from the top down. This was especially true in the area of politics, and last night it showed.
SEIU and the AFL-CIO poured 10 million dollars into a race in Arkansas, a state that has very few unionized workers, to defeat a candidate with whom they disagree.
It is yet another example of them backing a loser…
Howard Dean (whom I greatly respect), Rod Blogojevich, and former Detroit Mayor and now inmate Number Whatever, Kwame Kilpatrick, for whom I walked many an hour for in the hoods of Detroit.
Well folks, here’s the irony…
SEIU has quitely, and effectively for years, improved the life of workers, cast light on workplace violations, and more recently raised hell over corporate bailouts, but…
After pouring in millions of dollars to defeat Blanche Lincoln...Lincoln said last night in her victory speech, “This Senator’s vote cannot be bought…” She was, at the same time, expressing something else.
SEIU has become what it never intended to be, and something for which it holds great disdain…
A corporation.
Cheers!!
Hey sports fans…We have a new game in town. It’s called…
Health Care Town Hall Brawl, and it's sweeping America faster than a Spanish Flu outbreak.
I have mentioned that I am not a policy wonk and am really not an expert on Health Care legislation, but I have been and remain a student of psychology.
And Boy Howdy… Psych pioneers such as Freud and B.F. Skinner would be in seventh heaven if they were alive to study what’s going on at the Health Care Town Hall Meetings taking place across America.
It seems now that not only are angry anti-Obama Health Care Plan morons shouting down and harassing lawmakers and others who disagree with them, Service Employee International Union (SEIU) has joined the fray on behalf of getting health care reform legislation passed.
I am sooooo digging this. College football has yet to start and I am so sick of hearing exclusively about the Yankees and the Red Sox, that this new, Town Hall Brawl fills my sports need vacuum.
Allegedly, SEIU members beat up a black, T-Shirt hawking guy named Kenneth Gladney in St. Louis, and they allegedly pummeled elderly protestors at a town hall meeting in Tampa.
I used to play on the SEIU team for about 4 ½ years as an Administrative Organizer and Political Director so my interest is really peaking.
Yelling, cussing, brawling…Fuck the WWE, this health care “debate” is much more verbally and physically violent, and the anger and blood are real. Bring it on, Bitches!!
I don’t know if SEIU members are responsible for attacking anyone, and if members actually did do that, it is not something directed by the SEIU headquarters. I can’t see Andy Stern and Dave Regan (someone I personally worked for) calling for member goon squads to pummel protestors.
Oh sure, the two of them may have joked about it behind closed doors, but those two, tight-fisted with a dollar bastards, would never pay union wages to anyone to simply put a left jab to the jaw of a moron.
Knowing Regan as I do, if he wanted to punch someone, he would do it himself. As much as he’s pretty damn arrogant, he is also uber-smart and fearless.
Getting back to the game and sport of Health Care Town Hall Brawl…A new participant has thrown herself into the game.
Our favorite Eski-Ho, Sarah “Lame and Dull” Palin has chimed in.
She says that if Obama’s plan is passed, your grandmother and her son Calculus, Algebra, or Trig, whatever the hell his name is, will have to go before the “Obama Death Panel” to see if he is productive enough to get health care because he has Down’s Syndrome.
Hey Sarah, I didn’t know until now that smoking Arctic tundra grass gave one a bigger high than marijuana. You are one fucked up woman. Anyhoo…
There’s a problem with this sport. While it is exciting, funny, sad, and full of uninformed hate and stupidity, I already know the outcome.
Team A, comprised of big Pharma, Glenn Beck-Tards, and those who think Obama is the Second Coming of Stalin want nothing done in regards to out of control costs and affordable health care options.
Team B, wants to pass an entirely comprehensive system that will bankrupt our country…I mean more bankrupt than we have been for the last ten years.
In the end, neither team will win…Oh sure, the insurance companies will win. Pharmaceutical companies will win, and those paying high premium costs and the uninsured will lose, but well...sigh...
While my inner twelve year old is enjoying watching the game, my grown-up forty-four year old is sick to my stomach, and if I want that condition treated I am going to have to pay out the ass.
Cheers!!
In spite of being lambasted by millions of dollars worth of negative TV ads, mailers, and phone calls paid for by SEIU and the AFL-CIO, as well a tidal surge of anti-incumbency, she won with 52% of the vote.
