Ed Morrissey at Hot Air takes note of the new Coalition for a Democratic Workplace ad running in Minnesota, using humor to compare the Senate candidates’ positions on the Employee Free Choice Act. (Sen. Norm Coleman, the Republican, is opposed to card check; Al Frank, the Democrat, support it.) The ad features actor Vincent Curatola in his Sopranos role.
Ed comments:
Curatola is actually a moderate Democrat; he supported Hillary Clinton in the primaries, although she also backs EFCA. His efforts against Al Franken come expressly from this issue, which Curatola has backed for months. His easily-recognized persona makes this new ad just as effective as the first, and it will get plenty of play in Minnesota’s metropolitan areas of the Twin Cities, Duluth, and Rochester.
The AFL-CIO responds to the ads with outrage, bluster and misdirection, using the now-tired tactic of calling on Coleman to repudiate the spots.
“We condemn these ads,” said Steve Hunter, secretary-treasurer of the Minnesota AFL-CIO, speaking at a news conference Tuesday at the State Capitol. “We find these ads clearly wrong and furthermore they are demeaning to workers and to their unions and to our fellow union member, Al Franken.”
And…
Hunter replied: “I don’t find it humorous when you talk about workers’ rights.”
Humor? Being used against Al Franken? Outrageous!
Hunter’s almost-substantive part of his response repeats a standard approach of the laborites, that, why no, the Employee Free Choice Act doesn’t eliminate a private ballot in the workplace. How can you say that? It just gives the organizers a choice whether to have an election or not, the same choice that employers now have.
But for the unions, the major point of card check is to allow union organizers to eliminate the possibility of losing in an election. Why would they ever permit a vote when they can achieve representation through open signature-gathering, the petitioning process that invites arm-twisting and intimidation?
It’s a laughable argument, except, you know, we’re not supposed to laugh.
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