Month: June 2004

In what appears to be yet another flip-flop, John Kerry reportedly crossed a picket line in Chicago to speak at a Rainbow-PUSH meeting, Instapundit reports this evening:

Northwestern Univ. Law Professor James Lindgren sends this email:

As the New York Times reported yesterday, John Kerry refused to cross a picket line on Monday in Boston to speak to the National Conference of Mayors. He was quoted as saying on Sunday night: “‘I don’t cross picket lines,’ he said. ‘I never have.'”
Yet this morning (Tuesday) in Chicago Kerry spoke at the annual meeting of Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow-PUSH Coalition, which was being very actively picketed by a labor group, Voices of Morality (VOM). VOM is leading a labor discrimination protest against Daimler-Chrysler (the signs that the picketers were holding looked very much like ones in pictures on the VOM website). Jackson and the PUSH conference were being targeted because, according to a local Chicago ABC TV news report, Jackson has ties to Daimler-Chrysler. The reporter referred to the PUSH coalition conference as one on “labor,” but neither the official text of the Kerry speech nor the PUSH website lists that as the topic of the conference, though of course PUSH is best known nationally for its labor activities–picketing corporations and negotiating financial deals with them.

Sure enough, Chicago’s ABC station confirms the professor’s report in an exclusive story on its website:

While Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry addressed education during a speech at Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, critics of Daimler-Chrysler picketed outside the building.
Reverend Jackson is trying to help Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry connect with African American voters and this year’s Rainbow PUSH conference provided a perfect venue. But Kerry’s appearance this morning was overshadowed by a crowd of black activists. They’re angry at Jackson for allowing an allegedly racist auto company to underwrite a portion of the [Rainbow-PUSH] conference.
“The black vote is not for sale. The black vote is not for sale,” chanted the demonstrators.
Nearly a hundred African American demonstrators protested outside the Rainbow-PUSH convention. They accuse the Reverend Jesse Jackson of selling out the black community by allowing automotive giant Daimler Chrysler help underwrite the cost of the convention. The carmaker is accused in a lawsuit of subjecting black buyers to racially discriminatory sales policies and making derogatory racial comments about African Americans.

It appears from the story that not only did the pickets exist, but that the demonstration was large enough even for a Senator to notice. It also calls into question Kerry’s association with Jesse Jackson’s organization, which has raised eyebrows in the past for its arm-twisting — some would say extortionate — practices in getting money out of corporations, not to mention the disposition of the cash afterwards.
John Kerry, of course, had this to say on Sunday evening:

Later Sunday night, after attending Mass and receiving communion at St. Vincent’s Waterfront Chapel overlooking Boston Harbor, Mr. Kerry was asked how he would respond to the mayor. “I don’t cross picket lines,” he said. “I never have.”

The question of the day for Kerry: Which is it, Senator? Do you cross picket lines or not? Perhaps he wouldn’t cross picket lines before he would.

Nominating conventions for political parties usually include a certain level of regional silliness; delegates wear outrageous outfits and cover themselves with buttons, shirts, and hats that represent their home state as much as their favored candidate. Delegate counts usually are coupled with sloganeering such as, “The great state of Texas, home of the Alamo and the world’s largest spitoon, casts its 78 votes for John Doe!” It’s all in fun, and the relentlessly upbeat messages contribute to the carnival atmosphere in which everyone wants to participate.
Given all of that, the Greens certainly know how to take the party out of the Party:

Major-party convention halls usually ring with unabashed pride and self-promotion as vote announcers remind everyone that “the great state of [fill-in-the-blank]” is home to this sainted man or that unparalleled mountain range.
At the Greens’ convention, though, the spin was a little different. Delegates were told, for example, that “the great state of Indiana” extends “from the shores of polluted Lake Michigan in the north to the clear-cut banks of the Ohio River in the south, with many other sins in between.”
Before casting its votes, New York trumpeted itself as “home of Wall Street and unbridled corporate greed.”

No wonder these people can’t win an election. Who goes running out to the polls to vote for the buzz-killer? And if you think that’s bad, you haven’t heard about the crowd-pleasing announcement from the great state of Minnesota at the convention:

And the great state of Minnesota? It is, delegate Kellie Burriss of Minneapolis intoned, “the land of 10,000 lakes and the Boundary Waters — as well as the home of the Prairie Island nuclear power plant.”
The reference to nuclear power drew a chorus of boos from the Greens, but that changed to loud, sustained cheers when Burriss read out the state’s votes, which included “one vote for Eugene Debs,” cast by delegate Wade Hannon of Moorhead, a teacher and counselor.

The Debs vote received a second ovation when the chairman repeated the vote for the record. Why haven’t you seen Debs on the stump? He’s been dead for 78 years, that’s why. Debs ran for President five times as a Socialist between 1908 and his death in 1926, including once from federal prison on espionage charges. In his first foray, the Strib notes, he toured the country from a train he dubbed the “Red Special”.
So the Greens, who continually chafe at the lack of respect they get, give ovations when casting votes for long-dead Socialists. I’d say the two-party system appears safe for the near future.

The other shoe dropped in the kerfuffle over John Kerry’s refusal to cross the ersatz picket line outside of the Mayors’ Conference Sunday. Today, the police union announced that it has dropped plans to picket the Democratic National Convention next month due to Kerry’s sop to the union this weekend:

Boston’s main police union abandoned yesterday their threat to picket at the site of next month’s Democratic National Convention, handing Senator John F. Kerry a major victory on the day he honored the union’s picket line by not making a speech before a US Conference of Mayors meeting in Boston. …
The shift in the Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association’s picketing strategy would allow Kerry and thousands of convention delegates and members of the media to enter the FleetCenter unimpeded, despite the city’s ongoing labor woes. But Kerry’s cancellation drew sharp criticism from both Democratic and Republican mayors, who angrily accused the presumptive Democratic nominee for president of caving in to a local union that is making unreasonable demands.

Kerry pandered for the labor vote, without a doubt, and manuevered his fellow Democrat, Mayor Thomas Menino, into the fire by showing him up instead of supporting him and the other mayors. The immediate announcement makes the quid pro quo rather transparent, and should further incense Menino that Kerry tried to build his labor cred on his back.
The Globe includes more denunciations of Kerry’s actions by the mayors who wound up crossing the picket line only to be shown up by the Democratic nominee, and they aren’t pulling any punches:

Kerry’s cancellation and an earlier snub by Senator Kennedy dominated the news coming out of the four-day conference, which wrapped up yesterday. As the gathering proceeded, Kerry’s move drew heated denunciations from several mayors.
Mayor Manny Diaz of Miami called Kerry’s cancellation “a slap in the face of the nation’s mayors” and added that Kerry allowed a local labor dispute to scare him from an opportunity to discuss urban issues with a crucial audience.
“I am thoroughly disappointed in his decision, thoroughly disappointed,” Diaz said.
Mayor Douglas Palmer of Trenton, N.J., president of the National Conference of Democratic Mayors, pointedly noted that Kerry will need the support of local leaders, especially in swing states, in his bid for the presidency.
“We are really where the rubber meets the road,” he said. “We’re very disappointed and angry that Senator Kerry didn’t come to address the mayors.”

One reason I’m posting separately on this story rather than updating my earlier post is that I think Kerry’s actions in being so ostentatiously pro-labor may mean that Rep. Dick Gephardt is out as Kerry’s running mate. If Kerry picks Gephardt, then he has no worries among labor; unions love Gephardt, the primary old-fashioned labor pol in national politics. If Kerry is leaning towards another candidate, like John Edwards or someone else with a similar lack of credentials, then Kerry has to overtly demonstrate his brotherhood with the rank and file, especially given his wealthy origins and current status. I think Dick may wind up sitting out this election, too.
UPDATE: More confirmation that Gephardt can cozy up to the TV this November instead of heading to the stump:

Missouri favorite son Dick Gephardt is not the favorite vice presidential candidate of several rank-and-file state Democratic leaders looking to deliver its 11 electoral votes to John Kerry.
Asked which prospective running mate would help Kerry win the battleground state, eight of 11 county chairmen and chairwomen selected at random by The Associated Press chose Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina. Gephardt and Edwards are among those Kerry is reported to be considering. … “Gephardt just doesn’t have the get-up-and-go that Edwards has,” said Irma Brannum of Poplar Bluff, the Butler County party chairwoman. “Edwards is the exciting one,” said St. Charles County chairman Joe Koester.

If Gephardt can’t excite the Show-Me State, he’s not likely to help much anywhere else, either.

In a misstep that may demonstrate a critical lack of courage in the face of adversity, John Kerry left his political support twisting in the wind yesterday when he abandoned Boston Mayor Thomas Menino due to the presence of police pickets. While not technically on strike, Kerry nonetheless opted — after failing to reach a diplomatic solution to the impasse — to snub the Mayors’ Conference led by his campaign co-chair Menino. Massachussetts Governor Mitt Romney took the opportunity to speak in his absence, demonstrating an executive persona that Romney hinted Kerry lacks:

First, John Kerry, the putative Democratic presidential nominee, decided Sunday not to attend the annual meeting of the nation’s mayors here, refusing to cross a picket line of police union members feuding with Boston’s mayor. Then, on Monday, Boston’s mayor, Thomas M. Menino, who is not only a Democrat but also the host of the Democratic National Convention here in July, welcomed a stand-in for Mr. Kerry: Mitt Romney, the Republican governor of Massachusetts.
Mr. Romney, not generally considered a friend to Democrats, seized the opportunity to praise Mr. Menino and needle Mr. Kerry.
“I wanted to indicate my support of Mayor Menino,” Mr. Romney said. “He’s a man of courage and integrity,” he added, saying, “In the executive responsibility, you put first the people and not the pickets.” …
“A mayor, a governor and a president have a responsibility to make tough decisions and balance budgets. A senator doesn’t, and that’s a big difference. Senators don’t have to balance budgets. Senators don’t have to make those kinds of trade-offs. That’s what the mayor has to do, and that’s why I want to be here for him.”

Of course, one of the knocks on John Kerry is that he lacks executive experience, a common charge against any candidate who has served primarily as a legislator. This perception is one of the reasons no one has been elected President straight from Congress since 1960, when Kerry’s idol John F. Kennedy edged out Richard Nixon. Certainly, it has been and will be one of the Bush campaign’s themes in the coming election, especially given the lack of legislative accomplishment from Kerry’s 19-year tenure in the Senate.
However, just because the perception exists doesn’t mean that Kerry had to feed it, and he did exactly that by deciding to leave his fellow Democrat holding the bag. After all, Menino crossed the picket line, as did the other attending mayors, most of whom are Democrats, and few of whom appreciated being shown up by Kerry. The Post notes a few of the reactions from the conference:

“Some of the mayors here are disappointed, frustrated, angered by Kerry not showing up,” [Menino] said. “It’s all about respect of the mayors, and there was no respect of the mayors.” While Mr. Menino said he was not about to withdraw support from his party’s candidate, he added, “John Kerry will have to live by this decision.” …
Several mayors at the conference expressed frustration and resentment toward Mr. Kerry.
Mayor Rich Borer Jr. of West Haven, Conn., a Democrat, said he believed that Mr. Kerry should have attended and might even have been able to mediate an agreement between the city and the union. “It makes it a little more difficult for me as a man to sit there and say Kerry is the guy when he didn’t show up,” Mr. Borer said.

Mayors represent the front line of party politics. They know the local players, understand the subtleties at the precinct level, and can tap the right people to turn out voters. Snubbing them may not push them to endorse Bush, but it makes them less enthusiastic about supporting Kerry. Kerry just made all of the mayors out to be anti-labor simply by their presence at the conference and shined the national spotlight on them in doing so. Especially in regards to Boston and Menino, Kerry may live to regret that as the nominating convention approaches; Menino may just leave him with another opportunity to respect the picket line more than his supporters, and this time Menino can shine that spotlight right back on Kerry.

Extending the debate into the monochromatic nature of the John Kerry campaign, today’s Washington Post again details complaints from the African-American community about the lack of access to the Democratic nominee and the paucity of its representation within his organization. At the same time, the Post inadvertently notes the reasons why Kerry feels little pressure to change:

Although the Massachusetts senator has many black supporters, civil rights leaders and academics are grumbling about his absence from black communities and a lack of top black officials in his campaign.
“You pick up the paper . . . and you see a picture where he’s surrounded by all whites,” Ronald Walters, a University of Maryland political scientist who helped run two presidential campaigns, said of Kerry. “That’s sensitive to black Democrats. It raises questions about the lack of blacks and Hispanics in his inner circle.”
Nine out of 10 black Americans voted for former vice president Al Gore in 2000, following a decades-long trend of crucial support for Democrats. A recent Washington Post-ABC News poll showed that Kerry has similar support among black Americans, but Walters and others said he must do more to make sure they vote.

Over 90% of the black vote went to Al Gore in 2000 … and he lost anyway, and that in a race where evangelicals stayed home in droves, an unlikely event this time around. Unfortunately for African-Americans, 2000 proved one thing: Republicans can win without them and Democrats can lose even when they have almost complete support from them. Lockstep, or bloc, voting has made their constituency somewhat irrelevant at the national level, although that is certainly not true at state and local levels. That lesson has mostly been lost on African-American community leadership, and so they continue to concentrate their efforts on a party that doesn’t even go through the motions anymore to include them at high levels of power. In contrast, although the Bush administration received little of their support, Bush has named blacks to prominent positions within his Cabinet, yet receives little credit for doing so.
In pressuring their community to focus solely on the Democratic party, they have thrown away their options to play on both sides of the aisle. While Republicans would love to have an opportunity to attract more support especially from middle-class blacks who might appreciate the laissez-faire economic policies of the GOP, they traditionally receive little response for outreach efforts. Take the assertion towards the end of the article that Jesse Jackson makes of being “shut out” of the government:

More than ever, Jackson said, black Americans are primed to vote against a sitting president. “Bush has a closed-door policy on civil rights and labor,” he said. “He has not met with the NAACP, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, the Congressional Black Caucus, except for once, or organized labor. We don’t have access to our government.”

Jackson lied. George Bush met with the NAACP — he spoke at their meeting in 2000 during his first campaign for president. In return, they produced a series of ads tying him to the dragging-death lynching of James Byrd, a particularly egregious campaign commercial that even some NAACP members questioned, especially since Texas enthusiastically prosecuted the murderers responsible and sentenced them to death. Now that the NAACP burned its bridges with Bush, Jackson complains that Bush doesn’t want to walk across the smoking wreckage.
All they proved was that the NAACP and the political class of the African-American community have no intention of ever working with the GOP. Why, then, does John Kerry need to parcel out key positions to them when he can make more effective use of patronage with other constituencies? Until moderates within the black electorate take back control from the Jacksons and Kweisi Mfumes, Democrats will continue to ignore them and Republicans will focus elsewhere.
UPDATE: Jim Miller has more thoughts, and some historical analysis that may surprise you. It surprised me a bit.