Monday, May 05, 2008
Obama and Hoffa
Sen. Barack Obama won the endorsement of the Teamsters earlier this year after privately telling the union he supported ending the strict federal oversight imposed to root out corruption, according to officials from the union and the Obama campaign.
It's an unusual stance for a presidential candidate. Policy makers have largely treated monitoring of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters as a legal matter left to the Justice Department since an independent review board was set up in 1992 to eliminate mob influence in the union.
Sen. Obama's rival for the Democratic nomination, Sen. Hillary Clinton, has declined to take a stance on Teamsters oversight. During his eight years in office, President Bill Clinton took no action to end the special board. Democratic presidential nominees in 2000 and 2004 -- Al Gore and John Kerry -- didn't address the issue, according to Teamsters officials.
Of course, both the Obama campaign and the Teamsters deny an explicit trade, sort of:
Bret Caldwell, a Teamsters spokesman, said the union's endorsement was "predicated in no way, shape or form" on the consent decree. Mr. Caldwell said that only a court can do away with the oversight, not the president. "The only way that this is going to be resolved is through the court system, there can't be a political solution," he said.
But Mr. Caldwell said the president could appoint people to the Justice Department and courts who also favored ending the consent decree.
"It certainly wouldn't hurt to have a president who came out and said that they would support getting the oversight out of our union," Mr. Caldwell said.
No, it wouldn't.
Think about it: Even the Clintons did not offer that deal.
6 Comments:
By 
, at
Mon May 05, 10:52:00 AM:
Will OBAMA offer to check ever car fender or byilding foundation to find out what happened to JIMMY HOOFA Sr And like any labor union the TEAMSTERS have connections with organized crime
By , at
Mon May 05, 10:54:00 AM:
"I think it was an educational process," Mr. Coli (Teamster Vice-President of the Central Region) said in an interview.
Well, I think that is a massive understatement, to say the least.
Those Teamsters. Who knew they were such keen teachers?
-David
By 
Escort81, at
Mon May 05, 11:34:00 AM:
Maybe Obama (channeling his inner Dean Wermer) wants the Teamsters to be on Double Secret Probation.
David -
Those Teamsters. Who knew they were such keen teachers?
As they say in TH's state of residence, "You got a problem with that?"
By Steve M. Galbraith, at
Mon May 05, 06:45:00 PM:
Terry/Brando: Conscience... that stuff can drive you nuts!
By , at
Tue May 06, 12:22:00 AM:
So he's got a sort of Tom Hagen/Michael Corleone relationship?
Strictly legit, of course.
JC
By , at
Tue May 06, 09:37:00 AM:
Hey, give BHO a break here! The white city criminals and union thugs would not support a clueless black man unless there was a pro-quid-quo. Obama's public capitulation to the IBT means that none of his rallies will be broken up and that he can rely on the fact that the number of ballots for him will always be greater than the number of his voters. The guy is a phoney annd, probably, a crook!
