Let me give Teamsters President Jimmy Hoffa, Jr. the benefit of doubt with regard to the Tea Party. I am sure when he said “let’s take these son of bitches out” that he meant it in a nice way. I am sure Hoffa was saying that the Tea Party or at the very least their ideas should be taken out at the ballot box, not in the streets.

But if that is the case, let’s keep this in mind. The Teamsters aren’t exactly the League of Women Voters. When Teamsters don’t get their way or they get too close to a Tea Partier, bad things happen. In December 2007, riot police arrested ten Teamsters who blockaded the gates of F.W. Russell Disposal in Somerville, Massachusetts when workers there didn’t want to unionize. In February 2011, a Teamster was cited for assault and battery after twice pushing a Tea Party activist after left-wing activists made their way over to a Tea Party rally across the street from their own rally in Sacramento, California.

Now consider what then Senator Barack Obama said to the Teamsters during his presidential campaign in a videotaped address in October 2007:

I’d like to take a few minutes to talk to you about what we can do to strengthen what has always been the backbone of America’s middle class – The International Brotherhood of Teamsters and the entire organized labor movement.

Ah, yes. The Teamsters as the backbone of America’s middle class. Because there’s nothing more middle class than rioting and picking fights with Tea Party activists. As for President Obama, it’s about time to judge him by the company he keeps. He might no longer keep the company of Bill Ayers and Reverend Wright but he sure hasn’t been circumspect when it comes to Jimmy Hoffa, Jr. and the Teamsters. They Obama’s army after all. Or let me put it another way. The Teamsters might be SOBs but they are President Obama’s SOBs.