DEMOCRATS AT HARD LABOR
The AFL-CIO executive board and other senior union hacks are in
sunny Florida for meetings, so of course the leadership of the
Democratic Party is there, too.
Sen. Tom Daschle on Monday promised the AFL-CIO
executive council that Democrats would do everything in their power
to slow down the Bush Administration on Capitol Hill. And in
return? He simply hoped the unions would appreciate his
efforts.
More important than Daschle’s reinforcing that his caucus is
bought and paid for by organized labor was the union’s cattle call
for presidential candidates. Sens. Joseph
Lieberman and John Edwards and Rep.
Dick Gephardt were all in Hollywood, Florida, to
speechify before the AFL-CIO leadership.
Gephardt is so tight with the leaders, they let him speak twice,
first before a larger gathering of union faithful, then before the
full executive council. Lieberman and Edwards each spoke once to
some of the council membership and their staff.
“Gephardt was good, as good as he we heard he was in
Washington,” says an AFL-CIO grassroots political organizer. “If
anyone thinks we’re not into him, they’re wrong. Organized labor
still loves Gephardt.”
That’s music to Gephardt’s ears. He did make a splash at the DNC
winter meetings in Washington last weekend, building on his
official announcement earlier last week that he was running again
for president. Prior to that, Gephardt had seemingly stalled with
the announcement that American Federation of State, County and
Municipal Employees (AFSCME) President Gerald W.
McEntee, who also serves as the AFL-CIO’s political
chairman, was telling friends and associates that Sen. John
Kerry had the best chance of winning in ‘04. He’d made
similar predictions about a young governor from Arkansas years
ago.
McEntee’s seeming endorsement of Kerry made Gephardt’s unique
access to the AFL-CIO governing body all the more important. And by
all accounts, he didn’t waste the opportunity.
Edwards, who performed well at the DNC gathering, and Lieberman,
who did not, both gave fairly standard stump speeches. “Edwards was
probably better,” said an AFL-CIO staffer who saw both. “But
Lieberman is known here because of 2000. He doesn’t have to worry.
Yet.”
Edwards has recently taken on a heavily populist message,
talking about his South Carolina working-class roots, and invoking
images of his hard-working father. It’s apparently playing well
with the audiences.
Gephardt was the only Democrat not to hang around Hollywood.
While Edwards and Lieberman each had fundraisers organized for
himself down there unrelated to the AFL-CIO meeting, Gephardt was
off to New York to pull in money. It will be his first major
fundraiser since announcing his candidacy.
ON ACTIVE DUTY
Retired Gen. Wesley Clark is, in fact, a Democrat,
according to DNC sources, who say that Clark has assured the
Arkansas state Democratic Party that it won’t be wasting its time
in waiting for him to make a decision about running for president
or some other political office in the near future. While Clark has
not promoted his political leanings, enough people in the party
have asked him that he had to come clean.
