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DEMS COURTING DANGER
Congress' recent anti-Iraq War votes left little doubt that Democrats are willing to elevate party politics way above national security. But who knew they would likewise elevate Big Labor's special interests over America's security? This shamefulness recently manifested in House and Senate bills ostensibly implementing recommendations of the 9/11 Commission. Democrats took it upon themselves to also throw in recommendations from the American Federation of Government Employees (the largest federal employee union) and the AFL-CIO. As a big payback to these powerful union bosses, the Democratic bill include language that overturns rules disallowing the Transportation Security Administration's 43,000 airport screeners from unionizing. Congress created the TSA post-9/11 to fix airports' deficient security. But it prohibited collective bargaining precisely because it was known that it would compromise screeners' nimbleness and ability to respond to varying security demands. And that move came shortly after congressional Democrats' successful efforts to strip from the Port Security Act a measure the International Longshoremen's Association considered bothersome. Passed while Congress was still Republican-held, the law originally featured an amendment by Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) imposing a seven-year-freeze on hiring dock workers convicted of murder, bribery, identity fraud, illegal-firearms possession and other crimes. Democrats, led in part by Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), successfully stripped the provision during House-Senate conference committee. Coming not long after Democrats used the aborted Dubai ports deal to slam the White House for mismanaging port security, the party's decision to kowtow to the Longshoremen is ironic - to put it mildly. Really, Democrats ought to know better. The last time the public caught union interests trumping national security, the folks back home responded by voting Democratic Senate leader Tom Daschle - who'd led a fight to have burdensome federal work rules applied to new Homeland Security hires - out of office. Indeed, voters nationwide noticed - and Democrats lost control of the Senate. Does the party want to reprise that debacle? Posted by: Fred 2007-02-27 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=181631 |