Obama Wines and Dines with his SEIU Cronies

The White House held its first state dinner last night in honor of Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh. America’s and India’s first families dined on a feast of meatless Indian cuisine along with 335 other guests – very few Republicans among them. House Minority Leader John Boehner and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell were both invited, though neither attended. Governor Bobby Jindal made the guest list, presumably because he’s an Indian-American. But the political names at the dinner consisted almost entirely of Democrats. Journalists also showed up from all five of the major television networks…except for Fox News.

Obama wasn’t gracious enough to invite his former presidential rival, John McCain, but he did find room on the guest list for two SEIU hacks: Andy Stern, president of the organization, and Anna Burger, secretary-treasurer who is often described as the “Queen of Labor.” Richard Trumka of the AFL-CIO was also in attendance. Andy Stern is no stranger to the White House, where he has been Obama’s most frequent guest since new president moved in.

It looks like that $31 million that the SEIU donated to Obama’s campaign really paid off.

In contrast, George W. Bush wasn’t throwing around state dinner invitations to NRA board members or Family Research Council spokesmen. The guest list for Bush’s last state dinner, honoring the Queen of England in 2007, was generally unremarkable, including mostly government officials and a small handful of prominent businessmen.

Rewarding prominent cronies and donors with prestigious White House invitations usually reserved for honorable and decent people? Sounds like classic Chicago politics to me.

And speaking of classic Chicago politics, the most awkward attendee at the dinner had to be former White House attorney Greg Craig. Craig was in charge of developing the legal framework for shutting down the Guantanamo Bay prison. As soon as the political winds began shifting on that issue, Obama unceremoniously kicked Craig to the curb.

Did ACORN Just Steal Another Election?

That’s what Doug Hoffman, Conservative Party contender of New York’s 23rd District, is claiming. Hoffman, who may still edge out Democratic challenger Bill Owens, even though Owens has already been sworn in, put up an open letter on his website asking for money and alleging he was the victim of yet more ACORN corruption.

As evidence surfaces, we find out that reported results from election night were far from accurate. ACORN and the unions did their best to try and sway the results to Obamacare supporter Bill Owens...

That is why I am writing you today. Recent developments leave me to wonder who is scheming behind closed doors, twisting arms and stealing elections from the voters of NY-23.

I'm sure you are as dismayed as I am to learn of the mischief that took place in Oswego and neighboring counties. We know this would not be the first time for the ACORN faithful to tamper with democracy.

Hoffman claimed that ACORN, which has been besieged by voter fraud investigations, altered the vote counts on election night. It's thought that they filled ballots with falsified names and addresses. Once these sham ballots were weeded out, Hoffman came within striking distance of Owens -- thanks to the uncounted absentee votes. Hoffman has provided no evidence to support his allegations and no other sources have reported ACORN's presence in the 23rd District.

So did ACORN throw the election to Bill Owens? The shadowy presence of one figure suggests they might: White House Political Director, Patrick Gaspard.

Gaspard is intimately familiar with New York politics, having spent much of his career as an activist with the radical Working Families Party (and its spin-offs) in the Big Apple. Gaspard’s political experience comes not from whipping senators in line in Washington, DC, but from coordinating left-wing community organizer groups like ACORN and the SEIU. He earned the nickname “Glue Man” for his ability to hold these organizatons together to fight for a common cause.

Gaspard has worked for the SEIU and the Working Families Party, both of which were kissing cousins with ACORN, employing the same tactics and often the same personnel. He is also close to ACORN president Bertha Lewis. In 2001, the two wrote a joint letter to The Nation magazine defending the Working Families Party. When Bertha Lewis’ Rolodex was somehow leaked to conservative blogger Erick Erickson, it was reported that one of her most detailed contacts was Gaspard.

The White House (and ACORN itself) has hotly denied that Gaspard worked for ACORN. But regardless of whether the group wrote his paycheck, he traveled in the same circles of radical community organizers. (Interestingly, Michael Gaspard, Patrick's brother, works for ACORN's lobbyist, The Advance Group of New York.)

Which brings us to NY-23. According to an administration official, Gaspard was the “air traffic controller” for that district’s election. He convinced the so-called Republican, Dede Scozzafava, to endorse Owens, a move many analysts believe sank Hoffman’s ship. Although this is farther upstate than Gaspard's usual bailiwick, the Obama administration has already used Gaspard as their go-to guy when it comes to New York politics. He has lived most his life in the Bronx and is closely involved with grassroots leftist organizations there. When Obama needed someone to signal to New York Governor, David Paterson, that the White House wanted someone else on the Democrat ticket in 2010, Gaspard stepped in again.

If Gaspard was the air traffic controller in NY-23, was he guiding in ACORN’s plane as well? He reportedly left no stone unturned in "turning" Scozzafava, including setting up a personal phone call from Bill Clinton to get her to endorse the Dem in preference to a Republican. Did he also co-ordinate with ACORN?

We can’t be sure for now, but time will surely tell.

Obama Administration hands the unions another gift, this time erasing 75 years of labor law

It’s fitting that our first post on Obama Watch News should be about Big Labor. After all, the unions bankrolled his campaign and there is no constituency to which Obama is more beholden.

From the Wall Street Journal:

The National Mediation Board, which oversees labor relations in the air and rail industry, this month moved to overturn 75 years of labor policy.
The board plans to stack the deck for organized labor in union elections. Under a proposed rule, unions would no longer have to get the approval of a majority of airline workers to achieve certification. Not even close. Instead, a union could win just by getting a majority of the employees who vote. Thus, if only 1,000 of 10,000 flight attendants vote in a union election, and 501 vote for certification, the other 9,499 become unionized.
This radical break with precedent is the handiwork of President Obama's appointees to the three-member board: Harry Hoglander, once president of a pilots union, and Linda Puchala, former president of the Association of Flight Attendants.
The board got a request to adopt the jerry-rigged voting standard from the AFL-CIO in September. Without a hearing or invitation for preliminary views, the Obama duo drafted the AFL-CIO demand and published it in the Federal Register. It's now subject to a 60-day comment period, after which Ms. Puchala and Mr. Hoglander will no doubt vote to inflict it on all the nation's airline and rail carriers.

In other words, it’s Card Check without the congressional approval. It’s also the latest product of Obama’s labor strategy, which has been working furiously to cut the regulatory ropes that hold unions down. (Deregulation of businesses wrecks the economy, but deregulation of shadowy labor bosses is okay, apparently.) The NMB is an independent government agency established in 1934, which is when the original certification rules were established. Obama’s appointees, at the behest of their cronies in the AFL-CIO, are the only ones since who have made such a radical change. This swings a wrecking ball at 75 years of labor regulation.

It’s no shocking development. The AFL-CIO was one of Obama’s earliest fans in 2008. A quick scan of independent expenditure donations to Obama’s campaign on Opensecrets.org reveals a campaign with coffers stuffed with union money. (Independent expenditures are made without the candidate’s coordination and aren’t privy to restrictive campaign finance laws.) The labor colossus Service Employees International Union donated close to $31 million alone. Their main claims to fame recently have been threatening legal action against a Boy Scout for cleaning up a union-controlled park and deploying hulking thugs to town hall meetings to bloody up conservative protesters.

Obama’s politics are nothing fresh and new. He’s engaging in the same political trick that’s been in play since ancient times: know who your friends are and pay them back once you’re in power. The top visitor to the White House during Obama’s tenure? Andy Stern, the president of SEIU. Big Labor created Barack Obama and now they want to be a loud voice in his ear.

You have to wonder how Amtrak Joe Biden will react to this. Then again Amtrak workers are already unionized, so ten bucks says he’ll be dancing down Pennsylvania Avenue.