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Unions Hoping To Make Cheney Face Of Opposition To EFCA

Dems have spent weeks trying to turn Dick Cheney into the face of the GOP. Now, in another measure of how useful Cheney’s growling visage can be to the left, the unions are trying to make him the face of the opposition to the Employee Free Choice Act.

An SEIU official sends over a new Web vid, to be blasted to the union’s list, that tries to rope Cheney into the EFCA fight by highlighting some new anti-EFCA comments Cheney just made:

There’s an interesting thing at around the one-minute mark. Cheney is confronted by CNN’s John King over the Bush administration’s economic record, specifically the big rise in unemployment and poverty rates on the Bush-Cheney watch. Cheney’s response: “Stuff happens.”

Relatedly, Karl Rove made an appearance in Illinois the other day to speak out against the measure. Labor is hoping to use the newfound interest in EFCA of these Bush heavies to hang the albatross of the Bush economy around the EFCA opposition’s necks.

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Posted by Greg Sargent | 05/14/2009, 04:36 PM EST | Categories: Employee Free Choice Act, George W. Bush, economy, labor

24 Responses

  1. jzap | May 14th, 2009 at 04:49 pm

    Cheney’s response:  Stuff happens.

    And, of course, Mistakes were made.  (Made famous by Iran-Contra.  Cheney still has a long way to go before he could even contemplate such an admission.)
    .
    Isn’t it about time we outlawed stuff?  Damned stuff just keeps going around and happening.  Maybe just tack it on as an expansion to the War on Drugs.  Let’s call it the War on Drugs and Stuff.

  2. sgwhiteinfla | May 14th, 2009 at 04:50 pm

    On a related note.
    .
    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/05/14/specter-raises-efca-hopes_n_203682.html

  3. sgwhiteinfla | May 14th, 2009 at 05:00 pm

    This is a pretty sh*tty ad. The SEIU shouldn’t put that up anywhere because it doesn’t help them at all.

  4. sbj | May 14th, 2009 at 05:04 pm

    “My senator should support the EFCA because Dick Cheney has been wrong about the economy?”

  5. Chris | May 14th, 2009 at 06:38 pm

    Unions run some of the best ads around and I think they can make this a hard hitting ad. Paint it all Cheney. No colors anymore I want them to turn Cheney.

  6. Tena | May 14th, 2009 at 07:01 pm

    I think we should definitely make the most of Cheney’s emergence from his undisclosed location to join Rush as the heads of the GOP.

    :)

  7. sgwhiteinfla | May 14th, 2009 at 07:02 pm

    Here is the problem with this kind of ad. Cheney is so hated by most people that if they see an ad featuring him they will either turn the channel or watch it but never even pay attention to what the underlying message of the ad is. If they want to use him they should just use him for spot duty. And even then they should us HIM to smear the opponents of EFCA in Congress. Other than that using Cheney won’t help them at all.

  8. Greg Sargent | May 14th, 2009 at 08:08 pm

    No roundup today, all. Apologies. Unexpected thing arose. Back first thing in AM.

  9. sgwhiteinfla | May 14th, 2009 at 08:21 pm

    All good Greg, CYA tomorrow.

  10. sgwhiteinfla | May 14th, 2009 at 08:23 pm

    Joe Scarborough decided that its better to defame a decorated FBI interrogator than admit that the CIA tortured and that the same torture was ineffective.
    .
    http://crooksandliars.com/jamie/scarborough-comes-new-spin-torture-testimony

  11. sgwhiteinfla | May 14th, 2009 at 08:25 pm

    Karl Rove is getting questioned Friday but a special prosecutor over the US Atty firings
    .
    http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/news/2009/05/ap_source_rove_to_meet_with_special_prosecutor.php?ref=fp7

  12. sgwhiteinfla | May 14th, 2009 at 08:27 pm

    Hoekstra is tongue tied when Shep Smith asks him if waterboarding is torture.
    .
    http://thinkprogress.org/2009/05/14/hoekstra-waterboarding/

  13. sgwhiteinfla | May 14th, 2009 at 08:31 pm

    Republican candidate for Blanche Lincoln’s senate seat in Arkansas Kim Hendren referred to Chuck Schumer as “that Jew”
    .
    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/05/14/kim-hendren-apologizes-fo_n_203583.html
    .
    You stay classy GOP.

  14. sgwhiteinfla | May 14th, 2009 at 08:33 pm

    Bob Graham came out and said that the CIA was wrong on their briefing timeline and that they actually had to admit they were wrong in at least two cases where he wasn’t even at the briefing that the time line say she was.
    .
    http://www.balloon-juice.com/?p=21198
    .
    You may remember Bob Graham as the Congressman who had OCD when it came to taking notes about every waking moment of his life.

  15. sgwhiteinfla | May 14th, 2009 at 08:38 pm

    And Newt Gingrich wants to sue somebody over twitter ettiquette.
    .
    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/05/14/newt-gingrich-threatens-t_n_203631.html

  16. AllButCertain | May 14th, 2009 at 09:02 pm

    Nice job on the roundup, SG. Maybe next time Greg will ask you to pinch hit on the front page. (Is this how the mysterious DK evolved into David Kurtz?)

  17. AllButCertain | May 14th, 2009 at 09:09 pm

    SG, On OCD Bob Graham, a link from your link has this from a 2000 article: “The Florida Senator has been filling notebook after notebook–close to four thousand of them to date, color coded by season. He has kept a running account of his every waking moment for the past 23 years–14 in the Senate, eight in the Governor’s mansion, even his days in the state legislature. Graham writes down every meal, every meeting, every person he meets. No item is too small.” What an absolutely perfect person to corroborate Pelosi’s statement, plus raise further questions.

  18. AllButCertain | May 14th, 2009 at 09:11 pm

    With luck, Bob Graham doesn’t twitter.

  19. sgwhiteinfla | May 14th, 2009 at 09:27 pm

    ABC
    .
    You gotta say that the one person the CIA should have known better than to lie on was Bob Graham. As you said Pelosi couldn’t have a better or more credible ally in this fight. The question of course is if the MSM will keep continuing to cover this as a “he said, she said” story. OR will they actually do some fact based reporting for a change.

  20. sgwhiteinfla | May 14th, 2009 at 09:42 pm

    I hate to link to politico but they have a story now that Torsella is dropping out in PA effectively clearing the field for Specter in the Dem primary at least for now.
    .
    http://www.politico.com/blogs/scorecard/0509/Torsella_dropping_out_of_Pa_Senate_race.html
    .
    Sestak anyone?

  21. Greg | May 15th, 2009 at 06:44 am

    killer roundup, SG. Thanks.

  22. sgwhiteinfla | May 15th, 2009 at 07:13 am

    No problem Greg, we got your back.

  23. Ting | May 15th, 2009 at 07:53 am

    I like to see some “stuff” happen to Dick Cheney.

    Maybe we’ll live to see that too. Dick goes to jail. “Stuff” happens.

  24. actuator | May 15th, 2009 at 10:58 am

    Questions. Does EFCA eliminate the a secret ballot for the process of choosing union representation or not? Is an emplyee allowed to “opt out” of the union? As a former union member who did not like some of the politics of my union, I had the option to opt out and did so. If it is going to be a “Free Choice Act” then there should be some freedom and some privacy.

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