Huffington Post: Trumka: Primarying Lincoln Was 'Priceless', Dems Will Realize Their Timidity

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/10/05/trumka-primarying-lincoln_n_750740.html

Sam Stein Updated: 10- 5-10 10:51 AM

Hoping to shape the narrative around the expected loss of Democratic congressional seats in the fall election, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka argued on Tuesday that the lesson learned from the past two years will be that Democrats were too timid with their legislative ambitions.

"Those battle-worn Democrats will understand that they faced tough races not because they did too much but because they did too little," said Trumka.



Speaking to a small group of political reporters from the union federation's offices overlooking the White House, Trumka argued that the president, up until recently, lacked a clear argument for his economic agenda. That, combined with pared-down reform on a host of policy fronts, has left the party in a precarious state -- though one that, Trumka argued, is not as bad as the pundits are predicting. Democrats, he predicted, will hold on to both chambers of Congress.

The union leader was particularly pointed when making the case that Democrats are primarily responsible for their own precarious political states, even if the AFL-CIO helped put them there. He expressed no regrets for a failed attempt to knock off Senator Blanche Lincoln in a Democratic primary, calling the effort (which cost the union millions of dollars) "priceless" and arguing that purging members on matters of principle was, in turn, a principled thing to do.

"We will do it again," said Trumka. "You will see us doing more primary races in the future. Not less. More. And some of them will be successful and some of them won't. But people understand we are willing to fight for working people, And by the way that generated a whole lot of enthusiasm in the state. We now have more volunteers in that state then we have ever had before... She gave us no votes. She didn't help working people. It doesn't matter whether it is a Democrat or Republican working against you, the result is the same. "

FULL story at link.

[vi5]

1. Hit the nail on the head

In trouble because they did too little not too much.

That will never sink in to them and their insular little world of obsessing over what cable news talking heads say, but it's right and it needed to be said.

[FreakinDJ]

5. Why would they rock the boat for Corporate Amurika

[hobbit709]

2. Sometimes you have to take a stand.

Popeye's statement “That’s all I can takes, because I can’t takes no more!” is where the line gets drawn.

[SpiralHawk]

3. "Oh my stars." - Timmy Milquetoast (D)

[old mark]

4. Trumka for President!....nt

[nyc 4 Biden]

10. You beat me to it! - - Trumka Cuomo 2016

[xchrom]

6. Recommend

[Kolesar]

7. I am happy that we did not slide into 20% unemployment

I already lived through that in Youngstown in 1981.

President Obama and the Democrats deserve some credit.

[vi5]

8. We're nowhere near out of the woods yet...

They deserve credit for doing something, and it stopped the bleeding no doubt. But by every reasonable standard and according to every even slightly credible economist it wasn't nearly enough. And they don't seem to be pushing for more. And given their history of cowering in corners at the slightest sign of fight, the dems could lose only 1 seat in the house and 1 in the senate and they'd take that as a sign that the people have spoken and this is a center right nation and they need to act and vote accordingly.

[Omaha Steve]

13. Obama didn't send millions of jobs overseas!

Republicans turned down the chance to recover so many of those jobs on Sept. 28.

OS

Republican Senators Kill Jobs Program: http://blog.aflcio.org/2010/09/30/republican-senators-kill-jobs-program/

by Mike Hall, Sep 30, 2010

Senate Republicans turned their backs on workers one more time before they left town for the Nov. 2 elections when they refused to allow a vote to keep alive a jobs program that has created nearly a quarter of million jobs. Many of those jobs were in some of the communities hardest hit by the nation’s unemployment crisis.

The program was a small part of the economic recovery package known as the TANF Emergency Fund and it directly subsidized jobs in government, nonprofit organizations and small businesses for unemployed workers.

On Tuesday, Sen. Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.)—with the backing of Republican leaders—used Senate rules to block an extension of the TANF fund. The program expired today and the layoffs are beginning.

According to the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP), the program subsidized jobs in 37 states for nearly

250,000 otherwise unemployed parents and youth—helping families, businesses, and communities across America weather the recession…. The fund has been a “win-win-win,” helping unemployed families find work, businesses expand capacity in a difficult economic environment, and local economies cope with the recession.

The New York Times reported that the jobs program created some 400 new public- and private-sector jobs in Perry County, Tenn.

But in a county of 7,600 people, those jobs had a big impact: They reduced Perry County’s unemployment rate to less than 14 percent this August, from the Depression-like levels of more than 25 percent that it hit last year after its biggest employer, an auto parts factory, moved to Mexico.

Brian Davis, a 36-year-old father of four, who got a stimulus-subsidized job with the City of Lobelville after he lost his job of 17 years at an auto parts plant, told the Times:

This was a huge help, the way the economy’s been and the way people are struggling, you’re worried about putting food on the table for your children and keeping the electricity on.

Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass) sought to include the TANF extension in the temporary spending bill the Senate and House passed yesterday to keep the government operating though December. Before Enzi blocked the bill, Kerry said:

It’s inconceivable to pull the rug out from under the same families who have been devastated by this recession. It makes no sense to shred a program that’s been creating jobs and helping low-income parents make ends meet for the last two years.

In a guest column for Politico, Christine Owens executive director of the National Employment Law Project (NELP), writes that allowing the TANF jobs program to expire

means killing jobs when we should be saving them, throwing hundreds of thousands back into joblessness at the very moment we need to put America back to work

While some states plan to use their own funds to continue the program most are not.

[Kolesar]

26. Republicans are really stupid--this program was what they wanted in the 1990s

...when they were whining about people refusing to work and "staying on welfare".

[Hydra]

15. We're already beyond 20%

And have been since President Obama asked for the too-small stimulus, feeling that things would correct on their own.

The official numbers are appalling. The real ones are beyond frightening.

The fact that no plan is on the rails to fix it means that we won't see any gains that stick.

[Kolesar]

25. Well, Youngstown experienced 50% unemployment in the 1980s

That number was determined by a survery conducted by Youngstown State University, and the unemployment rate was above what the official BLS unemployment rate reported.

To be explicit, I am glad that President Obama was as successful as he was so that the *official* unemployment rate did not rise above 20%.

Do you recall when Bernaike created a trillion-dollar loan?

[Hydra]

27. I'm not concerned with the official rate

Beyond it being the tip of the iceberg, and therefore measurable when multiplied.

http://www.dailyfinance.com/story/careers/what-is-the-real-unemployment-rate/19556146/

And since the President continues to say that the Private sector must be the solution, and the Private sector is making huge profits by cutting staff, I'm not seeing where the engine of recovery will come from.

I'll be waiting patiently while people starve out.

[eridani]

9. Yes, primary the bastids

But if it doesn't work, vote Dem anyway. The alternative is batshit crazy disaster.

[gratuitous]

11. Well gee whiz

You can't expect the Senator from Wal Mart to represent working people. But Blanche is a Democrat, see, and it's so important to get Democrats in office, that even if they work against the party and its constituents, they're still valuable. Somehow.

[kentuck]

12. I agree with this comment.

"It doesn't matter whether it is a Democrat or Republican working against you, the result is the same."

[bvar22]

14. "Priceless"

It forced the Democratic Party Leadership to put their cards on the table and show America who they are really working for.

[tritsofme]

16. Rahm Emanuel's infamous quote is a good way to decribe this type of thinking.

The money spent in the AR primary was an absolute waste of resources. It would have been better spent today, in races that matter.

[jgraz]

17. You mean the money spent on Blanche Lincoln, right?

Because, unlike Blanche, Bill Halter actually had a shot to win the seat.

[tritsofme]

19. Nah.

I mean I don't know if he could technically do worse than Blanche Lincoln is doing, but he would have had no better chance of winning than Christine O'Donnell does in Delaware.

[jgraz]

21. Beating a fake Democrat in the primary is always worth the money and effort

[tritsofme]

23. It's money that can't be spent in October.

Lots of actually winnable races out there that could use the resources.

[jgraz]

24. You assume it's a zero-sum game.

This is not the case. True progressives can fire up the base and bring in donations that otherwise wouldn't be there.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

30. B y that logic, there should never be any primaries, period. -nt

[jgraz]

31. I wouldn't call it "logic", but that is the position of many establishment Dems.

If we left things up to them, the Democratic party would still be in favor of segregation.

[Radical Activist]

18. He's right. Conservative Senate Democrats are bringing down the entire party.

They're the reason many races will be lost this year. I doubt the media will spin it that way though.

[AtomicKitten]

29. +1

:hi:

[nadinbrzezinski]

20. SHH labor is slowly waking up

SLOWLY

[me b zola]

22. K& freaking R!

"Those battle-worn Democrats will understand that they faced tough races not because they did too much but because they did too little," said Trumka.

[myrna minx]

28. K&R n/t