The American Spectator

Washington Prowler

p> EVOLVING PARTNERSHIP br> The money people who finance the Democratic Party aren't being too subtle. As reported in the Prowler a few months ago ( here and here ), the three-headed monster that underwrites the left-wingers over at the DNC and keeps people like DNC chair Terry McAuliffe on a short leash -- organized labor, the radical womens' groups and the environmentalists -- pooled some of their money and created a special interest PAC, the Partnership for America's Families, supposedly dedicated to "getting out the vote" in 2004. /p>

Last week, in a related effort, two of the bigger shills for big labor -- Partnership founder Steve Rosenthal, formerly political director of the AFL-CIO, and Andrew Stern, president of the Service Employees International Union -- together the Sierra Club and EMILY's List, pooled about $30 million, and promised to spend it all on ousting President George W. Bush. George Soros is the only individual involved in the group. He committed $10 million of his own money.

Never mind that these activities should draw the attention of the Federal Election Commission, which has barred special interest PACs from engaging in overt political targeting. Under the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law, such groups cannot direct their funds and activities towards a specific political goal. Rather, they can spend their money on issues and get out the vote campaigns.

That said, the new group, which calls itself Americans Coming Together (ACT), promises to be extremely active in the critical states in play for 2004. ACT would now be even more influential had its new CEO Steve Rosenthal not gotten into an war of egos with fellow labor power player Gerald McEntee, head of the influential state and municipal employee union, AFSCME. That union had been slated to join in Rosenthal's work, until McEntee and Rosenthal clashed, and McEntee took his money and went his own way.

"Given the politics inside labor, McEntee, Stern and Rosenthal couldn't be part of something like this together," says an AFL-CIO lobbyist. "They all have eyes on one day being head of the AFL-CIO, at least McEntee and Stern do. These guys just can't play nice with each other for very long."

topics:
Environment, Law