Posted on 01/26/2010 11:27:16 AM PST by cycle of discernment
Stern Lashes Out At Senate Dems, Calls Some Legislative 'Terrorists' 01-26-10
Two of the most powerful union officials in the country lashed out at Senate Democrats on Tuesday, jokingly calling some of them legislative "terrorists" and slamming leadership for "squandering" a supermajority in the Senate.
Pointing to the failure of Congress to pass health care reform and effectively stimulate job creation, SEIU president Andy Stern insisted that "unless something dramatic happens here" the country's labor activists will not be eager to help the Democratic Party in the 2010 elections. Speaking at a forum on the state of the American worker at the Center for American Progress, he urged House Democrats to pass the Senate's version of health care legislation with promises that it will be amended after the fact using reconciliation. And he called on President Obama to drive home this point during the State of the Union address on Wednesday.
"Take the Senate bill as it is as the foundation to find ways whether through reconciliation or other legislative processes to try and fix the things that a lot of people think need to be fixed both now in the House and the Senate," Stern said. "I think going through reconciliation we don't have Ben Nelson or Joe Lieberman to kick around anymore. So the 58 other senators get to decide something they maybe didn't get to decide the first time around because of the hostage-taking that is going on in the Senate."
Stern wasn't done lashing out at Lieberman, Nelson and the other conservative members of the Senate Democratic caucus. Reflecting on the policy changes that these senators secured during health care negotiations, he argued that the country "should send the national security people over to [the Senate to] explain to them why we don't negotiate with terrorists..."
"Because there are a lot of terrorists in the Senate who think we are supposed to negotiate with them when they have their particular needs that they want met," he added.
"Are the Senate rules really appropriate for a 21st-century country where we can create gridlock by very limited hard work?" Stern added. "If we are going to have filibusters, let's at least have a debate. At least make people go to the floor. Let's put the cots on the floor permanently... Change can easily die in the wells of the Senate."
Asked how badly he wanted filibuster reform, he replied: "Very badly."
Stern's lament of the Democratic Party's inability to get legislative action done, even with its supermajority, was shared by his co-panelist and labor colleague, Anna Burger, head of Change to Win
"I woke up Tuesday and we have 60 seats in the Senate and we couldn't count 60 votes," she said. "I woke up Wednesday morning and we had 59 seats in the Senate and we still couldn't count 60 votes."
In a shot across the bow at congressional Democrats worried about their electoral fate, she added: "If Congress does not act, then they will lose. There is no way that inaction will get us anywhere... 2010 will be a terrible election. People in fact voted for change, and if they haven't gotten change then they will go back and vote for the next change."
Awwwwww. The poor, little commie thug.
Bullsh!t....
**Awwwwww. The poor, little commie thug.**
Better than anything I’ve come up with ... LOL
Poor lil Andy.. head of the PURPLE PEOPLE BEATERS!!
**the country’s labor activists will not be eager to help the Democratic Party in the 2010 elections**
Fine, take your money, phonebanks, and your softmoney people contributions...and stay OUT of the Election...
THOU DOST THINK TOO MUCH of One’s Self!!
Somebody needs to put that piece of crap Stern out of his misery.....isn’t he old enough to get that “end of life” counseling that he wants so badly?
So you mean to tell me that the union brass in this country will start supporting the GOP?
LMAOF
is a little less than pleased with his fellow snakes:
Of course, the SEIU should know all about what a terrorist is:
Although in this case, just like a broken watch can still tell the correct time twice a day, I don't think I necessarily disagree with the little snake:
But then, I suppose that's just me.
Nothing more embarrassing than a bluff made in public. Stern is a blow hard punk. First legislative agenda item for Tea Party majority should be the requirement that union members approve political contributions by their union.
The PuppetMaster speaks to the puppet.
Bump & Ping
These people should be in jail. SEIU and ACORN are the same organization.
what’s wrong, they didn’t get enough cash from Obama?
See it from Andy’s point of view: the UAW got an automobile company and what did bammy give the SEIU? I’d be pissed too, if I spent that much of my union members retirement fund and only got a seat at the inaugural. Shoosh people, we are talking about Union money - its sacred, don’t you know?
“Duh, hey Barry. Dat’s a nice little, uh, PARTY youse got dere. Be a SHAME if sumthin, uh, HAPPENED to it, ya know?”
“Lieberman and Nelson—CONSERVATIVE members of the democratic caucus?” Who in hell WROTE this nonsense??
The Center for American Progress is a liberal public policy research and advocacy organization. Its website describes it as “... a nonpartisan research and educational institute dedicated to promoting a strong, just and free America that ensures opportunity for all.” It has its headquarters in Washington D.C.
Its President and Chief Executive Officer is John Podesta, who served as chief of staff to then U.S. President Bill Clinton. Located in Washington, D.C., the Center for American Progress has a campus outreach group, Campus Progress, and a sister advocacy organization, the Center for American Progress Action Fund.
The Center was often featured prominently on the Al Franken Show on the Air America Radio network, where Christy Harvey and Al Franken criticized the Bush administration at length, accusing it of dishonesty and incompetence.
The Center has no information on its website about its funding, but the Washington Post reported that “seed money pledged by such deep-pocketed Democrats as financier George Soros (and mortgage billionaires Herbert and Marion Sandler)” assisted its formation. The authors of Her Way, a biography of Hillary Clinton, also assert that the Democracy Alliance, a progressive donors collective, has funded the Center. They also assert that the Sandlers and Soros provided seed money
The Center helped Congressman John Murtha (D-PA) develop “strategic redeployment”, a comprehensive plan for the Iraq War that includes a timetable and troop withdrawals.
the Center for American Progress publishes a daily global warming blog called Climate Progress
In April 2008, TIME magazine named this blog one of the “Top 15 Green Websites”
In March 2009, Thomas L. Friedman, in his column in The New York Times, called the blog “indispensable”
A report from the Center for American Progress concludes that a $100 billion federal investment in clean energy technologies over 2009 and 2010 would yield 2 million new U.S. jobs
Staff and fellows
Bracken Hendricks
Andrew Light is a Senior Fellow working on Climate, Energy, and Science Policy
John Podesta, President and Chief Executive Officer
Joseph Romm is a Senior Fellow and the editor of climateprogress.org
William F. Schultz
Daniel J. Weiss is a Senior Fellow and the Director of Climate Strategy
Anna Deavere Smith, artist in residence
Major individual donors include George Soros, Peter Lewis, Steve Bing, and Herb and Marion Sandler. The Center receives undisclosed sums from corporate donors.
Sunlight Foundation and the Campaign Legal Center, criticize the Center’s failure to disclose its contributors, particularly since it is so influential in appointments to the Obama administration
The Center for American Progress was begun in 2003 with funding from philanthropists Herbert M. Sandler and Marion O. Sandler[1] It is a Washington, DC-based liberal think tank created and led by President and Chief Executive Officer John D. Podesta, the head of Barack Obama’s presidential transition team after the 2008 election and former Chief of Staff for President Bill Clinton.
In 2009 CAP’s Progressive Media project emerged as a major communications war room on behalf of Obama’s domestic and foreign policy agenda and CAP became a strong advocate for escalation in Afghanistan. Progressive Media is run through the Center for American Project Action Fund, the more political 501(c)4 arm of CAP. It coordindates closely with the Common Purpose Project, an effort to create message discipline among the pro-Obama organizations, with a direct tie to the White House.
CAP is the parent organization of Campus Progress. The Center publishes a daily emailed Progress Report, described by the National Review to be “The most aggressive, most energetic opposition research in politics.”
“The Center for American Progress — which has emerged as perhaps Washington’s most influential idea factory in the age of Obama — is launching a major new war room, to be staffed by nearly a dozen people, that will focus on driving the White House’s message and agenda, I’m told. ... The new war room - which is called Progressive Media
The war room - a joint project of CAP Action Fund and Media Matters Action Network — will be headed by well-known liberal operative Tara McGuinness, who worked on John Kerry’s presidential campaign and was a major player in the anti-war movement during the Bush years.”
Jennifer Palmieri is the project’s communications director
CAP is a lead organization in Health Care for America Now, HCAN. On March 25, 2009 it released its proposal for reform titled Competitive Health Care, written by Peter Harbage and Karen Davenport.
American Progress is slated to operate with a $10 million budget next year, raised from big donors like the financier George Soros.”
Personnel
John Podesta, President and Chief Executive Officer
Sarah Wartell, Executive VP for Management
Melody Barnes, Executive VP for Policy
Laura Nichols, Senior Fellow
Cassandra Q. Butts, Senior VP for Domestic Policy
Debby Goldberg, Senior VP for Development
David Halperin, Senior VP and Director, Campus Progress
Fellows:
Tom Daschle, former Democratic Senator from South Dakota
Morton H. Halperin, Halperin is also Executive Director Open Society Policy Center
Joseph Romm, former acting assistant secretary of energy for energy efficiency and renewable energy during the Clinton Administration, and blogger at climateprogress.org.
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