Labor Dealt Blow by GOP Senator’s Reversal

ABC News’ Teddy Davis reports:

Organized labor was dealt a significant blow on Tuesday when Arlen Specter, a moderate Republican senator facing a GOP primary challenge in 2010, reversed his position of two years ago and announced that he plans to vote against cloture on the Employee Free Choice Act, legislation which would make union organizing easier.

“The problems of the recession make this a particularly bad time to enact Employees Free Choice legislation,” said Specter on the Senate floor. “I am announcing my decision now because I have consulted with a very large number of interested parties on both sides and I have made up my mind.”
Specter, who called EFCA the “most heavily lobbied issue” that he can recall, said that his principal reason for voting against cloture this time is the “elimination of the secret ballot” which he called “the cornerstone of how contests are decided in a democratic society.”

EFCA, which Republicans like to refer to as card check, would allow workers to form a union by obtaining a majority of signatures from employees in a workplace. It would strip business of the right to demand a secret election.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., responded to Specter’s announcement by insisting that the bill could be passed, saying that the Pennsylvania Republican was “not the only Republican that has indicated a willingness to consider something being done.”

But despite Reid’s claim, the bill’s proponents were hard pressed to cite a Senate Republican who would be willing to cross party lines and support organized labor’s top priority.

“I can’t name names,” said AFL-CIO spokesman Eddie Vale. He added that labor does not want to identify specific GOP targets out of fear that it will lead them to come under additional business pressure to oppose a cloture vote which cuts off debate and allows the Senate to proceed to a vote.
Pat Toomey, the Republican weighing a primary challenge against Specter, responded to Tuesday’s announcement by issuing a statement claiming credit for Specter’s reversal on card check.

“It’s nice to see Sen. Specter reverse his position in a positive direction on card check, but I wish it didn’t take primary opposition to get him to do it,” said Toomey in his statement.

Toomey, a former House member who challenged Specter in 2004, is the head of the anti-tax Club for Growth.

Minutes after releasing his first statement, Toomey released a second statement accurately pointing out that Specter indicated in his floor statement that he was leaving the door open to supporting EFCA down the road.

“When Senator Specter does a flip flop, it’s worth checking the fine print,” said Toomey in his second written statement. “On the Senate floor today he said: “I would be willing to reconsider Employees’ Free Choice legislation when the economy returns to normalcy.” In other words, if he thinks his political fortunes have improved, he will deny workers a secret ballot after all.”

An anti-EFCA strategist welcomed Specter’s announcement by noting that the support of at least one Republican senator is needed even if comedian Al Franken emerges victorious in the Minnesota Senate race and even if all 58 Democratic senators vote for cloture.

“I don’t know where they go to get a Republican vote,” said the anti-EFCA strategist who spoke on the condition that he not be named.

Politics Live: GOP Senator Calls Stimulus a ‘Dog’ of a Bill

ABC News’ David Chalian Reports: It’s not often you will find Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, parroting the words of the San Francisco Chronicle, but he did so with glee on “Politics Live” on ABC News Now Thursday where he also took a shot at his Democratic colleagues for being afraid to pass the stimulus package without Republican support.

Sen. Hatch expressed no confidence in the current bill’s ability to jolt the economy back to health.

“This bill isn’t going to do it and the House bill is even worse,” Hatch said. “Now maybe in conference because once both houses pass bills we’ll go to conference, maybe we can improve it there. But it’s a dog right now. Even the San Francisco Chronicle calls it that and that’s a liberal newspaper.”

Sen. Hatch went on to say that he believed passage of the stimulus bill was assured from the beginning. Instead, Hatch argued, Democrats have been on the hunt for additional votes because they are afraid to own this stimulus bill all on their side of the aisle.

“The fact of the matter is they’ve always had the votes to pass this bill. They’ve been afraid to do it because they know it’s a dog,” said Hatch. “They know it’s gonna cost the taxpayers and arm and a leg. It’s gonna cost hundreds of thousands of dollars for each job created and guess who’s gonna pay for it? It’s gonna be our grandchildren and our great grandchildren and people down the line who really have nothing to do with it today.”

Senator Wants Government Action on Citigroup Jet

ABC News’ Z. Byron Wolf Reports: If Timothy Geithner can get the Senate to confirm him despite the moral oddity of having a Treasury Secretary who didn’t pay all his taxes, he’ll take charge to cries from lawmakers that he address the hypocrisy of a bank being kept afloat with $45 billion in taxpayer money buying a new corporate jet.

Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., a chief backer of the U.S. auto industry in Congress, has seen the NY Post report that executives from Citigroup, the beleaguered bank that took $45 billion in taxpayer TARP money, have ok’ed the purchase of a new $50 million corporate jet, and he’s fumed.

Detroit automakers CEOs were lambasted for their use of corporate jets even before Congress rejected giving the auto makers a bailout – the Bush administration provided loans from TARP funds to keep Chrysler and GM afloat.

?The notion of Citigroup spending $50 million on a new corporate jet, even as it is depending on billions of taxpayer dollars to survive, does not fly,” said Levin in a paper statement.

?To permit Citigroup to purchase a plush plane ? foreign-built no less ? while domestic auto companies are being required to sell off their jets is a ridiculous double standard,” said Levin, who has contacted Geithner to do something about the Citigroup jet. Presumably, since Geithner is in charge of administering TARP funds, he would hold some leverage over Citigroup.

?I have urged Tim Geithner, who will presumably be Treasury Secretary by the end of the day, to do what he can to stop this absurdity from occurring, and I am assured he will look into the matter promptly ,” Levin said.