Reminder to labor voters in Pennsylvania: HRC is backed by right wing union buster Ed Rendell

[Ken Burch]

As mayor Ed Rendell betrayed every worker in Philadelphia by crushing municipal unions and forcing massive wage cuts through there.

You can't accept support from a person like that and be worth of labor's backing.

Democrats are obligation NOT to make life worse for workers.

[BeatleBoot]

1. Ed Rendell is a Democrat

A Democrat who won.

[Ken Burch]

4. By acting like a Republican, and then governed as a Republican.

There's no difference between conservative Dem and GOP.

And you're NOT a Dem if you're not passionately pro-labor. People who want unions weakened are right-wing on everything else.

[amborin]

24. Rendell wasn't acting Republican

he was confronted with a dying, sinking city, up to its neck in debt

desperately trying to save it from massive fiscal crisis

[Ken Burch]

26. Was it worth saving it if workers suffered?

There's nothing left for the non wealthy there now.

Antiunion equals right wing. He's never done anything for the powerless since.

Why would anyone trust the guy?

[amborin]

36. the workers didn't suffer

they were getting highly paid union wages and benefits...and continued to receive those

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

58. didn't Hillzilla fail to register a full slate of delegates in PA?

just wondering if that was cleared up.

[Joe the Revelator]

5. If he's a union busting, McCain supporting "Hillary Democrat" then we don't need him

Dump the chumps.

[Exilednight]

19. dubya won, look what good that did us.

Winning is only the beginning. It's what you do after you win that matters.

[EndElectoral]

2. I cannot understand why labor would ever support her.

[amborin]

37. why would labor support Obama? when he allowed Maytag to close plants in Illinois and move to Mexico

[lumpy]

49. You probably won't get an answer from Obama supporters.

They seem to have trouble fully researching the facts behind their one sentence denouncing of Hillary Clinton.

[Deja Q]

3. self-del

[TK421]

12. "Whatever you do...don't cross the streams...."

:D

[Ken Burch]

25. er...say what?

n/t.

[TK421]

32. Sorry..that was in response to the wrong post

I think...

[Ken Burch]

42. Which post did you mean to be responding to?

n/t.

[The Wielding Truth]

6. You don't know what you are talking about.

[Ken Burch]

7. How can a Kucinich support defend Rendell?

Rendell is against everything Dennis stands for. He HAS no progressive view.

What are you thinking here?

[The Wielding Truth]

8. Both work for the common good. DK ethically. ER like a crafty

politician. That's why sometimes a slick con man, if not my choosing, can win power for the powerless. There is a bigger picture. Step back. Let's stop fighting the Exxon Wars, and living to enrich those who will use us and sell us out.

[bicentennial_baby]

10. Please

consider dropping the DK avatar :puke:

[Ken Burch]

15. How does weakening unions and imposing wage cuts and layoffs

work for "the common good". When unions are weakened, all progressives lose. That's what Dennis would say.

What could Rendell have done OTHER than got himself elected as a DINO that could possibly outweigh unionbashing?

[The Wielding Truth]

56. You're a one person Rendell recking crew. Get a bigger

perspective. Or is your goal to beat anyone supporting Hillary, one of the Democratic front runners?
Do you realize how difficult it is to be a Democratic Leader of any sorts with the oil power and RW maniacs slamming you ? Really your accusations, which are off base, are not needed or useful to us in regaining our country.

[Ken Burch]

22. What did Rendell ever do that "won power for the powerless"?

That one's got me stumped.

[lumpy]

47. I think you had better educate yourself about Philadelphia.

Some people who live there might scoff at your silly attempt to smear Clinton.

[flowomo]

9. LOL -- Ed Rendell "right wing"....

things have certainly gotten nutty around here.

[TK421]

13. I had no idea Ed Rendell was right wing....can someone tell me how he became

right wing, and when that happened? Because I've lived in this state my entire life, and during his term....I JUST-CAN'T-SEE IT.......

[Ken Burch]

14. If you bust unions, you're right wing. You can't weaken unions and otherwise be progressive.

Weaker unions never serve the greater progressive good.

We don't need antiworker bastards in this party.

[TK421]

18. These unions he busted....what were his reasons behind it?

I'm looking up several things now, because I'm curious...so if you don't get a response right away, I'm still around

[Ken Burch]

20. He was kissing corporate ass but cutting local business taxes.

He threw people out of work rather than tax the rick.

You can't be a Democrat and do that.

Yuppies and corporations don't deserve THAT much sycophancy.

[amborin]

39. Obama took $$$ from Maytag owners, while allowing them to shutter Illinois plants

and move them offshore

the stinking HYPOCRISY

[BeatleBoot]

60. That is reprehensible

Shame on you, Mr. Barack "NAFTA" Obama

Shame on you.

[rug]

11. So, how are things in Alaska?

[Ken Burch]

16. Bad, but the party is slowly gaining ground.

We're likely to take back the U.S. House seat and may even take the Senate seat.

The GOP is on the ropes here.

What, pray tell, is your point?

[PM7nj]

17. Umm, well...

Yes, he did do that, and the unions were furious at him. But Philadelphia had major budget problems in the 90's and he completely turned it around. The Philadelphia unions aren't exactly... reasonable, either.

So you can blame Rendell for crushing the unions, but he didn't do it because he is some evil right-winger. He did it because otherwise Philadelphia would probably be in the same situation as Detroit today.

[Ken Burch]

21. A progressive would've turned it around by asking the rich to pay their fair share of local taxes

rather than cutting taxes on the rich.

No one who worked for a living benefited from that. And you can't put the rich first and still ask workers to vote for you.

[PM7nj]

27. But Rendell isn't a progressive

He's just your average big city Democrat... powerful, corrupt, egotistical, etc, etc. But he is not a evil right wing nut job.

[Ken Burch]

28. Still, it shows that workers can't trust him and shouldn't back those he endorses.

Why are you giving the guy the benefit of the doubt?

[PM7nj]

33. he saved this city

His cuts were drastic, and he did cut wages, but he HAD to. I am sure some people were hit very hard, but If he didn't do what he did everyone in Philadelphia would have been hit even harder.

[lumpy]

52. Asking the rich to pay their fair share of local taxes ?

What simple minded planet are you from ?

[Ken Burch]

54. It always LOOKED like Earth...must've been the computer effects.

You're right...the peasants must always sacrifice first.

[Ken Burch]

34. It would be easier to get past that if he hadn't spent so many years

gloating about screwing the workers.

He could at least show a bit of remorse for making them, rather than the rich, bear all the burden.

You want to trust the guy, that's your call. I can't see myself why anyone should see him as part of a positive Democratic future.

We'll have to agree to disagree on this one.

I just have a deep conviction that, once you've imposed austerity, you aren't on OUR side anymore.

[amborin]

23. very misleading post, borderline lie....details show all

he was trying to do the impossible: save the city of philadelphia....

"Ralph, who works in a restaurant near South Philadelphia's Italian market, and Virgil, an African-American bus driver, both agree that Ed Rendell is a great mayor. "He brought pride back to the city," says Ralph. "He's out there every day in the streets getting the job done," says Virgil, with an approving smile. Polls echo their enthusiasm, giving Rendell, who's term-limited out of office come January 2000, an extraordinary 77 percent approval rating."

snip

Rendell, "had often worn his compassion for the inner-city poor on his sleeve. More than any other big-city mayor, he continuously opposed welfare reform because of the "fiscal and human catastrophe" that he warned would ensue once thousands of former recipients looked for work in his job-hungry city—despite the mounting evidence that seemed to contradict him in his own streets. He displayed some of the same moral urgency when he set out to get federal money for an em-powerment zone in North Philadelphia, aimed at bringing jobs to those same welfare recipients.

Author Bissinger, who makes Rendell's testimony before the Senate Finance Committee hearing on empowerment zones the emotional high point of his book, describes him as speaking of the city's plight and its economic decline "with passion that reached just a notch below outrage, . . . urgently as if his words couldn't keep up with the fervor of his belief in them." His plea for federal funds, Bissinger assures us, wasn't just another request for a handout from Washington. Instead, says Bissinger, he was "seeking a way, at minimal public expense, of bringing an obliterated portion of the American landscape back to life.""

from www.cityjournal.org

[Ken Burch]

29. It hardly bolsters your case that you link to a neoconservative blog

Plus, the story you quote doesn't appear on it.

[lumpy]

45. Obama doesn't need your help.

Some times it's better not to stretch the truth. No?

[PM7nj]

31. Rendell was a good mayor

Philadelphia was in horrible shape when he took office. A lot of Rendell's policies really helped in bringing city back from the brink of death. Of course, their are things to criticize him for... but this post is going a bit too far.

I am in no way a Clinton supporter, and have been very critical of Rendell, but come on.... seriously.

[lumpy]

46. Thanks for trying to bring some truth to this attempt to

smear Clinton in some underhanded way. That is what it is all about.

[Penndems]

30. "right wing union buster Ed Rendell"

Judas Priest, I thought I'd seen some fudging of the truth, revisionist history and blatant campaign propaganda on DU these past few months, but this has GOT to be one of the more outlandish accusations ever. :eyes: :mad:

Here's the full story, to wit:

When Ed Rendell became Mayor of Philadelphia in 1994, the city was on the brink on the brink of bankruptcy (the city's deficit was about $250 million). In fact, during the 1991 mayoral campaign, he flat-out told Philadelphians that drastic cuts needed to be made to bring the city back to fiscal solvency.

About a year after he was elected (with sixty-eight percent of the vote, I might add), Mayor Rendell sat down with the city municipal unions and offered them a contract that froze their wages and cut their benefits (if memory serves me, that was for three years). It wasn't by any means popular, but nobody lost their jobs and there weren't any pay cuts. Obviously, the unions weren't going to be happy with the contract offered (they went on a sixteen-hour strike), but measures to secure the city's fiduciary soundness needed to be undertaken. (In addition, library hours were cut back, spending restrictions on city services was instituted, reorganization of city government, and competitive contract bidding were also undertaken).

In 1995, Mayor Rendell was reelected with eighty percent of the vote - even carrying wards consisting primarily of municipal workers!

Ed Rendell brought Philadelphia back from fiscal ruin to financial solvency. Drastic, short-term measures needed to be undertaken in order to achieve that goal.

Buzz and H.G. Bissinger's book, A Prayer for the City, goes into greater depth concerning both Ed Rendell's tenure as Mayor, and how the city's turnaround was achieved:

http://www.amazon.com/Prayer-City-Buzz-Bissinger/dp/067942198X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1205033983&sr=1-1

[Lucinda]

41. Thank you for posting.

Appreciate the info very much!

[LibertyorDeath]

35. " HRC is backed by right wing union buster Ed Rendell"

She is such a two faced weasel.

Corporatist DLC to the core...

[amborin]

40. Obama took campaign $$$ from corporatoins and allowed them to move to Mexico

[Ken Burch]

43. Was that a decision Obama had sole control over?

I rather doubt it.

[lumpy]

51. Read post 30 ding bat.

Maybe you should be eating the garbage you post.

[amborin]

38. Warning to US unions: Obama allows jobs shipped from Illinois to Mexico and takes money too

[Ken Burch]

44. Excuse me...Obama didn't have sole control over that decision.

The Clintons are not friends of labor. The Nineties proved that. The fact that the '92 and '96 platforms didn't even use the word "union" proved that.

[cali]

50. you are so desperate

what can one do but pity hillbots like you with your bullshit and twisting of the truth. Obama is supported by far more unions than your adored hilly. And he has high ratings from them too.

[lumpy]

53. Groan

Ughhhhhhhhhhhh

[amborin]

55. more unions support Hillary Clinton than support Obama

[Eurobabe]

48. I used to like Fast Eddie, now I think he is a DINO. n/t

[The Wielding Truth]

57. He's fast but I don't think he is a DINO. He is working on

cleaning up the environment and restoring funding for infrastructure.

[Eurobabe]

59. Where in PA? That state is a rat's nest! I know I am a PA'er

What a friggin' train wreck. Rendell's got alot of work to do, but I guess having a Rep controlled state legislature doesn't help.