RNC chair, Michael Steele, has been under assault since the end of March over the so-called “scandal” of the staffer, picking up the tab for potential donors entertained at a bondage themed West Hollywood strip club. This demonization continues, despite a few pesky facts…. Steele was not there, nor condones such behavior; the staffer, Erik Brown, was fired since he had already been previously called on the carpet for abuse over ineligible expenses; and the perp agreed to reimburse the RNC for the funds.
Tough to be a scandal when you’re missing… well… a scandal. Bad apples? They can be found in any organization, party, and on staff at the WH. At least the RNC policed their own…. unlike Obama’s AG, letting the Black Panther election intimidation squads off the hook completely. Talk about scandal….
What has been most interesting is the critics of Steele themselves… most are liberals not associated with the RNC, but thrilled to take advantage of any scandal that can work to their political advantage. Others are disgruntled “conservative/Republicans/Independents” who wanted to use the moment to call for Steele’s head on a platter for whatever their sundry reasons.
Another arm engaging in the Steele/RNC witchhunt is the media… and in this article’s case, it’s indirectly on the taxpayers’ dime. Peter Overby at NPR, existing in a large part by federal pass thru grants, takes it upon himself to expand on the media hype by emphasizing that the RNC is (gasp) “… spending more money than it’s raising..”
Okay… wow. Revelation. So is Congress. Where’s Overby’s commentary on that little ditty? Or is it bad form to bite the hand that feeds you?
Overby’s “concern” about the RNC’s fiscal status becomes even more baffling when you consider any RNC deficit doesn’t involve taxpayer dollars, but private donors. Were there any justified outrage, should it not come from donors themselves?
But riling up the RNC donors lies at the heart of Overby’s article, and the bulk of the media. There is a concerted effort to cut off cooperative funding to the party that is raising more than it’s oppposition. Why the negative press? Because the Steele/RNC spending is working.
Few of the media care to acknowledge the unheralded success that is now unfolding in the midst of this Steele/RNC witchhunt. And in that success lies an unlikely, and most likely unwilling accomplice… unions. Look at where the RNC money was spent, and the results.
As RNC spokesman Doug Heye says:
“We have spent more money, and we’ve invested that, whether it’s been in Virginia for the successful governor’s race; whether it’s been in New Jersey, also for that successful governor’s race; Massachusetts, for Scott Brown’s election,” he said. “But then also in states that aren’t really on people’s radar screens yet.”
That includes states such as Pennsylvania, with a state Supreme Court race that could affect redistricting in 2011.
So was RNC funds for the MA race and Scott Brown well spent? I don’t thing you’ll get much argument from conservatives on that election. How about Chris Christie in NJ? A pure success story…. now, enter the unions, and the union dog eat Dem dog show.
Organized labor losing ground in N.J. legislature New Jersey’s public employee labor unions, long seen as a potent political force and often depicted as an 800-pound gorilla looming over the Statehouse, are running short of friends in Trenton.
Public labor unions have found no refuge among Democrats, their traditional allies. Democratic labor leaders in the Legislature have been among the most vocal supporters of cuts to government benefits, saying taxpayers can no longer afford the perks.
Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D., Gloucester), business officer for an ironworkers’ local, made cutting public employee pensions and health coverage his first priority as head of the chamber. Fellow Democrats, sensing unease with high taxes and public resentment toward government workers’ benefits, joined behind him and the governor.
Even Sen. Donald Norcross (D., Camden), president of the Southern New Jersey AFL-CIO, rose to speak in favor of a series of pension and benefit cuts that won overwhelming support in the Senate and Assembly and were signed into law last month. More than three of every four lawmakers voted for the measures. Both the Senate and Assembly are controlled by Democrats.
“People in the labor movement feel like Democrats are abandoning their friends, are being intimidated by the governor’s attack on public workers, and are failing to articulate a clear defense of the workers who provide the education for our kids and the services that the people of the state depend on,” said Robert Master, the Communications Workers of America’s regional political director. “It’s very disappointing.”
He raised the possibility of unions’ fielding their own candidates in next year’s elections.
Gotta love it… unions looking for their own candidates because the NJ State Dems in power aren’t cutting the mustard…. What’s ironic is that the Dem majority NJ legislature seems to provide the appropriate lip service, if not the appropriate response to lobbying.
Christie blew into power when the long held Dem state was drowning in debt approaching $11 bil.
New Jersey’s budget crunch is hardly unique; dozens of states face similar predicaments. But a budget relying almost exclusively on spending cuts puts the state in a much smaller peer group, along with Florida, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, South Carolina, Texas and Virginia — all led by Republicans, a number of them with national aspirations.
“Time has run out, and the bill has come due,” Mr. Christie said in a speech frequently interrupted for applause, mostly from Republicans.
The budget would probably mean higher property taxes for most homeowners, at least in the short term, as local governments try to make up for the diminished state financing. But the governor is also proposing constitutional amendments and legislation to cap property taxes and spending at the local, county and school-district level.
Mr. Christie campaigned last year attacking the teachers’ and public workers’ unions and their costly contracts, and his budget lived up to his words: The $820 million cut in school aid is 7 percent of the total funding, and the 1,300 state workers being laid off come from a work force of about 65,000.
The governor said “the watchwords of this budget are shared sacrifice and fairness,” yet his spending plan calls for only modest tax increases on insurers and hospitals, eliminates the film-production tax credit, and halves a tax credit for high-tech businesses.
Naturally the budget cuts are bringing the usual “children are suffering” accusations to light. And no one is more PO’ed that the NJEA union, who managed to bring prayer back to the class room briefly to “pray” for Christie’s death.
Bergen County representatives of the state teachers union have ratcheted up the campaign against Governor Christie’s agenda in a fiery memo that encourages members to “get some dirt” and “go public,” and adds the education commissioner to the “attack list.”
But it’s the memo’s closing “prayer” that is sure to ignite controversy:
“Dear Lord … this year you have taken away my favorite actor, Patrick Swayze, my favorite actress, Farrah Fawcett, my favorite singer, Michael Jackson, and my favorite salesman, Billy Mays. … I just wanted to let you know that Chris Christie is my favorite governor.”
But of course, the publication of what this bizarre group considers “humor” in the media has prompted a very quick mea culpa apology. Not much else they could do, yes?
But that’s not the only place where the unions are turning on their own. Enter the infamous SEIU in North Carolina who’s make good on the threat to start their own third party in order to “punish” the moderate Dems who dared to vote against O’healthcare.
In a shot across the bow of Dems, the labor powerhouse SEIU is starting a new third party in North Carolina that hopes to field its own slate of candidates, part of an effort to make the Democratic Party more reliable on issues important to labor, I’m told.
SEIU officials setting up the new party, called North Carolina First, are currently on the ground collecting signatures to qualify as a state party, SEIU officials tell me, adding that there are around 100 canvassers on the ground right now. The goal: To have the party up and running so candidates can run in this fall’s elections.
It won’t be lost on political observers that three House Dems who voted No on reform are from the state: Heath Shuler, Mike McIntyre, and Larry Kissell.
This interesting event has me wonder if RNC’s NC chief of staff, Ken McKay, resigning just days ago amid the bruhaha isn’t feeling just a touch the fool, and seriously premature is his impulses. Oh ye of little faith….
Now I ask you… if Christie hadn’t won in NJ with the help of the RNC and Steele, and if Scott Brown had not won in MA with the help of the RNC and Steele, would North Carolina’s SEIC be starting their own third party Dems? Would there be the infighting between the NJ Dem legislature and the NJEA?
Genuinely, I’m not here to say Steele is the perfect RNC chair. Anyone taking that position has an uphill climb over image damage, and had to start with an inferior “new age info” grassroots communications machine. And as disclosure, I write this as one of a confirmed “non party”, independent kind of political mindset.
But here’s the skinny…. I see no logic to the demonization of Steele. Unless, of course, you want to play into the hands of liberal/progs determined to noodge the RNC into dumping Steele so they can use it to yet again portray the party as racist.
You ought to take note of just who’s driving the witchhunt, and think about their underlying agenda. If it’s some results and effect for the money spent you want, you’d better pay attention to the successes. Because I assure you, the media’s not going to put two and two together for you to spell out successful results. But the biggest clue should be the focus of thrust on kicking out a guy who’s making some headway in important arenas.
Vietnam era Navy wife, indy/conservative, and an official California escapee now residing as a red speck in the sea of Oregon blue.
This is the problem with people in general but UNIONS in particular. MOST employees would understand Pay freezes, early retirement options, and even layoffs in tough economic times. They won’t like it but in the face of a shut down if we don’t cut costs most would take cuts or options. PUBLIC WORKS UNIONS are “Entitled” no matter what, they rarely negotiate and because of that the states are forced to cut jobs rather than drop wages.
California is typical of labor unions lack of intelligence. EVERYONE knows California is in the worst shape int he nation, and instead of taking small pay cuts, or a reduction in bennies to help with the economic disaster, they have decided to spend money to launch a media blitz tugging at heart strings of liberpukes…NOW many of them are going to be laid off, so rather than keep working with a little less, they will not work at all and get state/fed unemployment aid. (for a little while)
The sad thing is these guys paid dues to SEIU, so they can spend it on ads rather than take the money and assist their members…Yep good move idiots.
Do you thing Kalifornia might get a clue? 💡
People that live in glass houses.
Government Unions should illegal.
Oops to ‘be or not to be’…. that should be: Government Unions should be illegal.
Robert —
You have no idea what you are talking about. Labor contracts will have layoff clauses which provide the mechanism for laying off employees. Contracts generally do not cover furlough days or pay cuts, so management and labor have to negotiated them separately. The deal is then given to the membership and the membership votes. Democracy in action, as opposed to management laying down a rule and the employees just shutting up and dealing with it.
In my town, the firefighters voted for furlough days (days where they do not work and do not get paid). But the police voted no, so they had layoffs under the contract, with the least experienced people getting wacked. The city then had to adjust by putting desk jockeys out in the street, which pissed off the older cops who actually had to WORK now . . . but so it goes.
I helped a friend create a furlough program for a non-profit that is not unionized. To me, that is preferable to layoffs. But if you are someone who has to take a paycut of 5%, but would have been spared a layoff and kept your pay under another set of rules, I understand how you might rather have layoffs and continue to pay your own mortgage.
I just heard yesterday about a rural county near me where the sheriff deputies unions refused to accept furlough days. So the country laid off most of them and they now have one patrol car for the entire county, which is about the size of Rhode Island minus Newport Island. In my mind, that was not the best way to handle the economic issue, but that was the employees’ choice on how to deal with the problem. They are adults, though, and knew what they were getting into.
In all, though, I find the union bashing here to be laughable. I have worked with unions for years and I represent the management side only. Teamsters, Electrical Workers, National Education Association, Fraternal Order of Police. Unions most definitely have a place and a good purpose in our economy because they set a floor of employee rights and benefits. Indeed, do you think anyone would have any retirement programs at their employer but for unions pushing them in the first place? Or workplace safety initiatives? Or “for cause” termination, as opposed to management firring people on a whim? Er, no. I work for management and BELIEVE ME, management can be incredibly dumb in how it handles employment, personnel, safety, wage, and termination matters.
Sometimes unions do nothing more than save management from making a much bigger mistake than they otherwise would . . . like using labor negotiations to smooth out gender based pay disparities, or using the grievance process to alert the company that a supervisor is sexually harassing or racially discriminating employees. It eliminates the favoritism (sometimes race or gender based, or personal) that would have two people of identical tenure and performance getting different rates of pay for the same job. Likewise, unions can convince an employee to file a grievance instead of a lawsuit, or convince a bad employee to just go away. Because one thing a union contract does is CHANNEL DISPUTES and put in a consistent set of rules for management to follow, create a framework for decision making, and establish a non-litigation based dispute resolution procedure. So when I hear the reflexive opposition to unions that I hear from the right, and its always talking points, not rational arguments, that tells me that the speakers don’t know sh*t about the history or function of unions, or about business management either.
You try tp portray this as a Michael Steele success. This happened despite having a buffoon such as Michael Steele at the helm. I get sick of him playing the victim card, saying it’s harder for him as a black man to get by. His “outreach” (read pandering) to the “black community” makes me vomit. The only reason the man is in the position he is is because of republican cowardice and the need of cowardly republicans to have a black man at the helm. A “see, we’re not racists after all” syndrome.
James —
Obama got elected, in part, because of the juxtaposition of one of the youngest presidential candidates ever against the oldest ever, a young hoops playing Black man running against a septugenarian cancer survivor. After Obama won, taking safe Red States like Florida, North Carolina, and Virginia, and swinging Iowa, Nevada, New Mexico and Colorado blue, and threatening in Missouri and even Montana, you COULD NOT run another elderly person for RNC chair, and you definitely could not run that guy from South Carolina (Katon something) who was a member of a segregated club. Or . . . well, I guess you COULD HAVE, but smarter minds chose not to. Steele was the best of what was left: he was younger and did not belong to a segregated club.
Now the other question: why would a member of a segregated club think he should be the head of the RNC? Wouldn’t he think “this might not look too good” especially when a Black may, on one hand, had just won the presidency on a big youth vote bubble? Did anyone think to ask whether it was a “good idea” to run such a person to be the chair, the face of the party?
Brob,
Katon Dawson. And thank you for expanding and validating the premise of my post. “Looking good” syndrome is what’s wrong with the RNC. People afraid to stand up for what’s right, and going along to get along. Senator septuagenarian is the exemplar of that attitude. Well, at least he was willing to go along to get along with the Demonrats, and fight tooth and nail against Conservatives. His rise and Michael Steele’s rise are all part of the same cowardice.
James —
You did not answer my question: why would a man who was a member of a segregated club think he would be an appropriate standard bearer for the party? Do you think that is an irrelevant consideration?
james, Steele could not spend what the RNC did not raise. He is been a talented and lucrative fund raiser, providing the funds for the ensuing successes.
You cannot give the credit to the RNC for these without including Steele’s vital contributions, including the Fire Pelosi ad that got $1.5 mil online quick as a bunny. Would the “old white guy”, as those like billy bob generally call the GOPers, been as astute to the new age communications, or lend any appeal to the upcoming conservative youth? In fact, you know the Steele thrust of advertising is working because the Dems are busy crying “foul” and “hate campaign”. That’s rich… I’m on the DLCC bulletin alert. I know “hate campaign” when I see it, and I assure you, the RNC even under Steele has a long way to go to match that crap.
I understand there is no end to the criticism of Steele. However given the difficulty of his task to mend an image that remains under assault daily, and outmanned in media support, the successes he has brought to the RNC are worthy of a pat on the back.
billy bob, not everything about unions is bad. With that I agree. However they have a tendancy to advocate businesses into bankruptcy. And lately, the US taxpayer is paying the price for that.
Like everything, there is moderation and reason that should enter the equation. However unions, OSHA and the EPA have done a bang up job in driving businesses and jobs out to other countries. They’ve been crossing the line far too often.
And I will add that the most heinous of all is the NEA.
There are two fundamentally different and inherently incompatible factions among unionized workers.
There is a LABOR movement that is comprised of largely of blue collar workers that has sought to level the playing field in negotiations with private owners of capital, who may have bargaining advantages that stem from better information, deeper pockets and industrial concentration. These unions are in an adversarial position with the management of the capital, who serve at the pleasure of the owners of that capital. LABOR unions concentrate on maximizing the pay of their workers, for given amount of labor.
All of the recent growth in unions has come from the faction that I refer to as the LEISURE movement. These unions, such as the SEIU,NEA, AFSCME (the Union that works for you) work by colluding with, rather than bargaining against management, which in this case are elected politicians. The power of a LEISURE union Comes not from the threat of a strike, but from the ability of a LEISURE union to deliver political victory (or defeat) at the polls to the politicians they are colluding with. Because of this it is essential for the Leisure leader to maximize the number of public employees along with the number of public pension recipients. They therefore, push to minimize the work done for a given amount of pay in contrast to LABOR unions which try to maximize pay for a given amount of work. This is seen in the constant demands for smaller class size, earlier and earlier retirement, etc etc . They also benefit in two ways from government subsidies for idleness, (which is itself a leisure-intense activity). First the more people on the dole, the more government workers are needed to administer the dole, and secondly the recipients of the dole do not vote like taxpayers do, in fact they automatically vote exactly the way LEISURE leaders would want them to. This explains the cozy relationship seen between SEIU and ACORN. Can you imagine an alliance with ACORN involving a real LABOR union such as the UMW or the Teamsters?
BRob: “why would a man who was a member of a segregated club think he would be an appropriate standard bearer for the party? Do you think that is an irrelevant consideration?”
Like the Congressional Black Caucus perhaps?
The Race Card back at Ya.
Chris and Mata —
Unions have some authority, but they do not have the authority or ability to sign a contract on management’s behalf. If the contract is bad, it is bad because management agreed to a bad contract. No one has a gun held on them and if management did not want to agree to something, they did not have to. But you have to be forward thinking enough to foresee problems and smart enough to figure out how to solve them. Or be willing to take a strike today to get a solution to a problem that will cripple you three years from now. With a few exceptions, US management has not shown itself to be farsighted. Too much short term thinking and TOO HIGH A PAY in exchange for that short term thinking.
As for the SEIU, they are trying to unionize industries like security guards, janitors, nursing home employees, etc. Service workers have low rates of unionization, fairly high injury rates, and not the best management, either. They are ripe, in large part, because management MAKES THEM ORGANIZABLE by underpaying and screwing with them. Trust me on this: if you pay people, give them decent benefits, and treat them fairly, you will NEVER have a union come in. Because there will be no need to have one. Poorly run companies almost DEMAND to be unionized, because the workers think that is the only way they will get a fair shake.
In contrast, I had a client who got the union out of the woodworking company he bought . . . by shutting down production early on Fridays and bringing out a garbage can filled with ice and beer. He built an informal relationship and the employees trusted him to be fair. Within two years, the union was decertified. I had a case a couple years back where the union president said they had few grievances over harassment or retaliation because if a problem ever came up, she would “call Barbara” (the public school’s CEO) and work things out. Barbara, as it turned out, was also known to be drinking buddies with THE TEACHER’S UNION PRESIDENT. Is there any wonder, then, that the District functioned well and the CEO was able to turn things around? I had another case where the employer wanted to settle a rather hairy disability discrimination claim. I suggested they offer $5,000 and no more than $10,000. They wanted to offer $50,000. Why? Because the woman was a good worker, she was disabled on the job, and the union contract tied their hands from doing what was “fair” for her. When I gave the offer to EEOC, they put us on mute for a minute. They were simply shocked that the company was doing what it was doing. But management knew what it was doing.
Whenever you see a CEO complaining about the unions, take it for what it is: lazy, poor management. UPS has had unions forever and THEY seem to be able to operate without whining about the union all the time. Why? Good management. And don’t get me started on politician railing about “union bosses” and “overrregulation” by OSHA or MSHA and that kinda crap. Empty rhetoric.
Old Trooper —
You just made a great argument for why Adolphus Towns should not head the DNC. And he doesn’t. I won’t even get into the issues that the RNC has attracting minority voters and the message a segregated club might send to minority voters and young White voters. But I ask again:
Why would Katon Dawson think he should head the RNC?
BRob: As neither Party represents the Nation well or the Taxpayer or my views, quite frankly I could care less about what cartoon character happens to be the figurehead of either Party. Neither party is fiscally responsible at this point and taxing, spending and borrowing your way to prosperity has never happened in the history of the Planet.
I am not Party affiliated because both parties can “do things to me” but none “do anything for me.”
I find it “interesting” that Mata would put a “defense” of Steele piece so soon after I commented on the fund-raising scandal. My comments must have hit a bit close to the mark!
I wonder what this other scandal would do to RNC and it’s fundraising.
Junior Florida Republican Party staffer had $1.3 million charged to party credit card
By Adam C. Smith, Times Political Editor
In Print: Saturday, April 10, 2010
She was a 25-year-old junior staffer when the Florida Republican Party gave her an American Express card.
Over the next 2½ years, nearly $1.3 million in charges wound up on Melanie Phister’s AmEx — $40,000 at a London hotel, and nearly $20,000 in plane tickets for indicted former House Speaker Ray Sansom, his wife and kids, for starters. Statements show thousands spent on jewelry, sporting goods and in one case $15,000 for what’s listed as a month-long stay at a posh Miami Beach hotel, but which the party says was a forfeited deposit.
The credit card records, obtained by the St. Petersburg Times and Miami Herald, offer the latest behind-the-scenes look at extravagant and free-wheeling spending by the party touting fiscal restraint. Not only did certain elite legislative leaders have their own party credit cards to spend donors’ money with little oversight, but Phister’s records show these leaders also liberally used an underling’s card — without her knowledge, she says.
“I did not have the sole discretion to initiate credit card spending,” Phister said in an e-mail statement. “Over that period of time, there were multiple instances when the card was used to make purchases that I had no knowledge of, and I did not regularly review the monthly credit card statements which I understand were sent directly to the Party’s accounting office.”
Even after a series of embarrassing revelations over profligate credit card spending by the likes of Republican U.S. Senate frontrunner Marco Rubio, Sansom and incoming House Speaker Dean Cannon — and pending state and federal investigations of party finances — revelations of the huge charges on Phister’s card had veteran GOP fundraisers apoplectic.
“Oh my God. I can’t believe it,” said Al Hoffman, a top fundraiser from Fort Myers, when told of the $1.258 million on Phister’s card. “See, that’s it. They have an underling do it all. There’s no reason a young assistant should be ringing up charges like that.”
Talk about incompetence. 👿
How many low-level seats could we have won in 2010 that we won’t win now because of this FUBAR???
$1.3 million could have won us a lot of clout.
Oh my…. Gosh darn, was that why I wrote this post?? LOL
The point of this post is that the the unions are abandoning the DNC overtly – it’s called the latest news, Ivan – and it’s all because of the RNC spending. Cash they have because of Steele fundraising. The success that the RNC is having is the entire reason for the current media assault to divide the party and thwart the fundraising that is being done.
A campaign that Ivan is pushing heavily, as we see. Which then brings us to a burning question… just who’s side are you on? Oh wait… don’t answer. Simply don’t care.
Your personal bashing of Steele? Just a teeny commenter voice added to a bunch of major media on a witchhunt for a specific agenda. You are far removed from a catalyst for anything I write.
You’re pretty self-absorbed there, Ivan. But that’s good, because I assure you, the few comments of yours I’ve paused on don’t even register more than a blip with me. But then I’m sure your ego will keep you company in your cyber loneliness.
BTW, does anyone have the patience to expand on reality for Ivan as to the party structure and fund distribution? Or maybe hand him a calendar to remind him when the tenure of Steele began… which of course still has nothing to do with the FL Republican Party.
Or do ya think he’ll catch on to the obvious smear campaign he’s blindly succumbing to all by his lonesome?
Ya just can’t fix stupid….
Mata:
I was defending Steele when the story first broke because we have enough to fight and defend from those on the other side anyway. However, when he said that him and Obama had less of a margin of error, his stock in my book dropped like a rocket. I am so tired of people using race or any other non-relevant issue to deflect.
Understandable beef, jlfintx… whether or not you agree whether there is truth to the statement that black leadership are given a bit more leeway than others can certainly be it’s own debate.
But if you plan to bounce leadership out for every error and verbal faux pas they make, there will be no leaders anywhere…. of any political stripe. Humans are simply not perfect carbon units. So you have to weigh their particular errors, how they recover from them, and their contributions to the overall success.
Mata:
I am actually solidly behind Steele now since he spoke and took some blame and wants to move forward. I like the things that he said and believe we can now move forward and get back on message.
The Masters has made my heart exceedingly glad and I thank God that Phil won.