The Note: One Minute to Midnight
— -- WASHINGTON, May 17
NEWS SUMMARY
We knew that eventually it would come to this: several of the Googling monkeys have started their own blogs.
Today, many of them are blogging about this whole Newsweek flap, which we find politically interesting only insofar as we are fascinated by the White House's posture -- fascinated in a neutral, hair-splitting sort of way.
Otherwise, we will leave that important press story to our colleagues writing the ABC News Media Unit's "The Press Note," available at http://abcnews.go.com/Media/ThePressNote/story?id=156238
Sadly/predictably, we started this morning to write about the top story in politics -- the filibuster showdown -- and we realized that the cupboard was completely empty.
So we did what any crafty content provider does when she is out of content -- we went to our inboxes.
Here, courtesy of two of the sharpest minds known to the frozen yogurt machine in the Hart Building, are a pair of takes on where the battle stands (with BlackBerry idiosyncracies cleaned up by The Note staff):
From Capitol Hill staffer #1:
I think the theme of today will be: Will the GOP moderates put up or shut up? Consider: 1. Even before Sen. Lott's very public and very sad meltdown and bow-down to the religious conservatives, the Dems had enough members interested in the deal on judges. 2. Lots of GOP Senators were worried about signing off on the deal before the Frist-Reid talks ended. 3. Enter Sen.McCain. Will he play the "Dobson may I?" game? 4. Frist today has a closed door meeting with undecided GOP senators on the nuke option -- presumably to strong arm them. This is the center of the universe today. The enterprising sort might stake out this meeting and read the tea leaves based on the countenances of those exiting. Oh yeah, will Norquist et al be in the room or on the phone?
5. Will any of them step up into the independent batters box to sac fly in Sen. Voinovich after his Bolton triple?
6. Keep an eye on Sen. Hagel. Despite calls for compromise, he has done little and as late as this morning remains undecided on supporting a compromise. Choice: back up his mouth or appease the Union Leader. It all comes down to backbone and we will see today who has it. 7. If the Dems agree to accept Brown and Owen while rejecting Pryor and Myers, we could have 30 Sens. support the deal. 8. Young Sen. Mark Pryor has emerged as a key deal-maker on all of this, working with Sen. Nelson.
From Capitol Hill staffer #2:
Sen./Leader/Dr. Frist will meet with centrist coalition today. Debate will begin on Wednesday; the Republican Leadership wants to have a full and thoughtful debate which will likely take up the remainder of this week and into next. Negotiations will likely be ongoing but we will move to start processing these nominees. It seems like Sen. Nelson really does have 6 Democrats, which puts a lot of pressure on Sen. Reid, but they don't have enough R's. The caveat that worries most is the "except in extreme circumstances." This means the deal ties Republicans hands by having them promise not to support the constitutional option while still allowing Dems the ability to filibuster and then leaves Republicans without recourse. Remember also that the constitutional option is not the goal, up or down votes are.
Pat yourself on the back if you followed all that, and remember: it isn't up to the staffers. (It's up to 100 Senators, David Rogers, and Dave Espo.)
Keyest paragraph in the papers on all this: "Republicans express confidence that they will have the votes when they need them. But a senior White House official said over the weekend that vote counts have been inconsistent and that neither side will know the status of things until there is a vote." (from the Washington Post's Murray and Balz)
Second keyest paragraph in the papers on all this: "The White House is working behind the scenes, but it may have hurt itself with the recent announcement of planned military-base closings, which hit hard in Maine, home of two swing Republican senators on the filibuster issue. (from the Wall Street Journal's Rogers)
While the war rooms hum and secret and semi-secret meetings take place, here is what is on the formal schedule:
Senate Democrats and Republicans hold their regular respective party caucuses at 12:30 pm ET. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist holds a stakeout beforehand at 12:15 pm ET. The Senate is in session in the afternoon, and is expected to approve the $295 billion highway bill.
Early, at 10:30 am ET, Texas Sens. Kay Bailey Hutchison and John Cornyn will hold a media availability with jurists and officials from the Lone Star State, as well as friends of Justice Priscilla Owen to talk about her qualifications and judicial expertise.
Among those attending: Thomas R. Phillips, former Chief Justice of the Texas Supreme Court; Michael L. Williams, Texas Railroad Commissioner and former Assistant Secretary of Education for Civil Rights at the Department of Education; Elizabeth D. Whitaker, past president of the State Bar of Texas and current co-managing partner of the Dallas office of Bracewell & Giuliani LLP; Linda S. Eads, associate professor of law at Southern Methodist University and former Deputy Attorney General of Texas; Patrick Mizell, former judge with the 129th state district court in Texas and current partner in the firm of Vinson & Elkins; and Lori Ploeger, a former briefing attorney to Justice Priscilla Owen.
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and Senate Majority Whip Mitch McConnell will hold a photo op with Owen and Janice Rogers Brown at 2:00 pm ET at the Capitol.
The other big political story today occurs when two Democrats go head-to-head in today's Los Angeles mayoral run-off.
Los Angelinos head to the polls and may end up sending the first Latino mayor to City Hall in 133 years. Roughly 46 percent of the nearly four million people who live in Los Angeles are Hispanic, according to 2000 census figures. Polls open at 10:00 am ET, and close at 11:00 pm ET.
The Los Angeles Times' Richard Fausset and Daniel Hernandez wrap the last day of campaigning in race. LINK
President Bush meets with former South African President Nelson Mandela at 9:10 am ET to talk with about fighting HIV/AIDS in Africa and the efforts of Mandela's foundation to promote education in Africa and help African youth. At 2:30 pm ET, Bush participates in former Rep. Rob Portman's swearing-in as the brand-new U.S. Trade Representative in the EEOB.
Mr. Bush delivers remarks at the Republican National Committee gala at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Washington, DC at 7:00 pm ET. Tonight's reception, which begins at 6:00 pm ET, has a goal of $15 million for the party. Tickets are $1,500 a piece, and they're expecting 1,500 attendees. The Spinners and Ricky Skaggs will perform, and Ken Mehlman gets to introduce POTUS.
Today is the one-year anniversary of Massachusetts allowing same-sex couples to marry.
House Majority Leader Tom DeLay speaks to the American International Automobile Dealers Association (AIADA) at lunch time at the J.W. Marriott Hotel.
The House meets for legislative business at 10:00 am ET.
At 2:00 pm ET, the House Ways and Means Committee's Social Security Subcommittee examines how Social Security came to be and its importance to vulnerable populations.
The White House Conference on Aging holds a "Solutions Forum," with comments by conference chair Dorcas Hardy and AARP CEO William Novelli at 9:30 am ET.
The Base Realignment and Closure Commission (BRAC) begins the second day of its hearings on the recommendations and methodology of the report at 1:30 pm ET, chaired by Anthony Principi. The focus today is on the Navy and Air Force.
The National Air Traffic Controllers Association holds the second day of its annual legislative conference today, looking to lobby members of Congress on financing and safety in the air traffic control system. Highlights: Sens. Ted Kennedy (D-MA), John Kerry (D-MA), and Hillary Clinton (D-NY), and Reps. Steny Hoyer (D-MD), Jerry Costello (D-IL), and John Mica (R-FL).
Govs. Mitt Romney (R-MA) and Tom Vilsack (D-IA) testify at 10:00 am ET before the House Education and the Workforce Committee on state and local efforts to revamp high schools.
At 12:45 pm ET, Sen. John McCain holds a news conference to call for the release of 408 remaining prisoners of war from the Sahara conflict, held an average 17 years.
House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer holds his weekly pen-and-pad-only briefing at 11:30 am ET.
The Federal Election Commission meets at 10:00 am ET.
The Heritage Foundation holds a discussion on religion and public policy at noon ET with Jim Wallis, editor in chief of Sojourners Magazine and Joseph Loconte, the think tank's William Simon fellow in religion and a free society.
Gov. Howard Dean goes to North Bethesda, MD, for a state Democratic party rally at 5:30 pm ET, where he'll be joined by Rep. Ben Cardin (D-MD), candidate for the open U.S. Senate seat in Maryland.
The Labor Department announced this morning that inflation at the wholesale level jumped 0.6 percent last month, propelled by expensive energy costs, cars and cigarettes. The increase follows a hefty 0.7 percent hike in March and offers fresh evidence inflation is on the rise as the economy expands. Excluding energy and food prices, core wholesale prices rose by 0.3 percent in April, up from 0.1 percent in March. Economists had been predicting a 0.4 percent rise on wholesale prices, and a 0.2 percent increase in core prices for the month of April.
The filibuster fight:
Guess the duck a l'orange wasn't as effective as it might've been. (The Los Angeles Times' Mary Curtius Notes that Sen. Reid got a bite of buckshot in his. LINK)
On the front page of the Washington Post, Shailagh Murray and Dan Balz write that as far as the Senate leadership is concerned they're at an impasse over changing the filibuster rules, and whether or not they can avoid the OK Corral depends on whether Sens. John McCain (R-AZ) and Ben Nelson (D-NE) can get half a dozen of their colleagues to sign on to a compromise that would keep the rules the same but allow for filibusters only in extraordinary circumstances. And everyone's wondering how persuadable Sens. Warner and Specter are, as Reid plays a little guerilla PR by telling reporters Frist ain't moving. LINK
Roll Call's Paul Kane has Frist pointing the finger right back.
Carl Hulse of the New York Times updates his readers, through David DiMartino, on efforts at a compromise: "David DiMartino, a spokesman for Senator Ben Nelson, Democrat of Nebraska, said those talks were continuing. He said Mr. Nelson and Senator Mark Pryor, Democrat of Arkansas, were trying to persuade a half-dozen senators from both parties to sign on to an alternative approach. Senator John McCain of Arizona is one of the Republicans who has a main role in the effort." LINK
Bloomberg's James Rowley writes, "It isn't known if Frist has the 50 votes needed to eliminate the judicial filibuster."
"Two Republicans, John McCain of Arizona and Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island, say they will vote against the rule change. Five others have voiced reservations about the proposal and said they haven't decided whether to vote with Frist. One of those undecided Republicans, Maine Senator Susan Collins, has said she was participating in the talks with Nelson."
"The other undecided senators are Olympia Snowe of Maine, John Warner of Virginia, Chuck Hagel of Nebraska and Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania."
He also throws in details of one of the proposed compromises:
"Nelson floated his latest compromise proposal at a bipartisan dinner two days ago at Frist's home in Washington. The Nebraska lawmaker offered to allow votes on Brown and William H. Pryor Jr., who was temporarily appointed by Bush to an appeals court in Atlanta, said Senate Democratic aides familiar with the talks.
"In addition, Nelson offered to allow votes on three of Bush's nominees to the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, including two whom Democrats had filibustered in the president's first term, the aides said."
"Under the proposed agreement, Democrats would be free to block votes on Henry Saad, another nominee to the 6th Circuit, as well as Owen and William G. Myers III, a mining and ranching lawyer nominated for the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, aides said.
Roll Call's Mark Preston reports that Gov. Howard Dean met privately with Reid last week to talk strategy on the showdown, as well as other legislative and political priorities. Preston also Notes some relatively unusual cooperation between Dean, the DNC, and the Democratic leadership.
Even as he seeks compromise, Democratic Sen. Ben Nelson tells The Hill that it is mostly up to the leaders. LINK
"'I don't have control over whether leaders will be able to strike agreement between themselves,' Nelson said. 'If they can't, then obviously the odds of [a confrontation] go up because people are holding back, waiting for the leaders to tell them what to do.'"
The Washington Post's Dana Milbank and Jeff Birnbaum paint a picture of the interest groups grimly gearing up for the fight on the filibuster with massive efforts -- and the overall silence of corporate America on the issue. LINK
USA Today's Kathy Kiely writes that the filibuster fight is the latest ante over reshaping the judiciary in a more conservative mold that began under President Reagan, and looks at how the trend has continued ever since. LINK
Filibuster fight: watching and listening:
The Pew Research Center released a new study yesterday afternoon showing that the filibuster fight, for all the bluster and fireworks it's caused inside the Beltway, hasn't registered much with the public. Of the roughly one-third of those who have paid fairly close attention, 54 percent say they oppose changing the filibuster rules. Thirty-five percent say they have no opinion. In terms of the blame game, the numbers are roughly even -- 38 percent said they blame President Bush for the stalemate, and 34 percent hold congressional Democrats responsible. LINK
The Los Angeles Times' Maura Reynolds writes that the real PR battle is over the hefty chunk of the American public that hasn't taken sides. LINK
The Wall Street Journal's Jeanne Cummings turns in an excellent profile of Jay Sekulow of the American Center for Law and Justice -- one of Boyden Gray's "four horsemen" -- who has a central role in just about every controversial social issue that reaches into the Beltway.
"As Congress heads toward a heated showdown over judicial appointments as soon as this week, Mr. Sekulow is playing a pivotal role: channeling the anger of the religious right without letting it boil over, which could create a political backlash or move his troops into open confrontation with the federal judiciary. In the campaign to seat President Bush's judicial nominees -- an effort spanning the White House, business groups and big-name evangelicals -- Mr. Sekulow is building a bridge between passion-driven activists and pragmatic Washington insiders."
The Washington Post's Gene Robinson looks at the battles over judges and John Bolton, and concludes that only one is worth Democrats fighting over. LINK
E.J. Dionne looks at the undercurrent of the fight over judges -- abortion -- and finds that contrary to widely held opinion, there is a (difficult) middle ground. LINK
Mark Leibovich of the Washington Post takes a look at the red-hot rhetoric war fueling the filibuster battle. LINK
His colleague Philip Kennicott takes an interesting look at the very specifically chosen wording surrounding the arguments over judges. LINK
Social Security:
Writes Janet Hook of the Los Angeles Times in her excellent look at the powerful Chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee: "Just as President Bush's Social Security overhaul seems to be staggering under its own political weight, one powerful House Republican is taking a contrarian's approach to saving it: Pile on a heavier load." LINK
"House Ways and Means Chairman Bill Thomas (R-Bakersfield) is trying to breathe new life into the Social Security debate by marrying it to a plethora of other contentious issues, among them rewriting the tax code, financing long-term healthcare and shoring up private pensions."
"The strategy is vintage Thomas: No one ever accused the brainy but irascible chairman of thinking too small, or of having too little self-confidence to swing for the fences."
Chairman Thomas' mantra: "Keep your eye on the big picture," writes USA Today's Richard Wolf. LINK
"Speaking to reporters and editors from USA Today and Gannett News Service, Thomas said the accounts should not be the major focus of the debate on fixing Social Security. And he broke with some Republican leaders by saying he would consider subjecting more of Americans' incomes to payroll taxes."
"Thomas said any legislation should not only make the system permanently solvent and fair for all beneficiaries, but also go beyond that to protect corporate pensions and boost personal savings rates. He belittled the conventional wisdom that 'if the specifics of the president's desires aren't delivered, it's somehow a failure.' He said Bush's 'fundamental approach was to get people to realize there was a problem in Social Security, and he did that. He won.'"
Writes Roll Call's Chris Cillizza: "Americans United to Protect Social Security has not received a single large-dollar donation from an individual since it was formed in February. Instead, the group is subsisting largely on contributions from organized labor, which has exceeded its expected level of giving, and other liberal interest groups."
Newsweek retracts:
New York Times. LINK
Washington Post: LINK
Los Angeles Times: LINK
In "Heard on the Hill," Roll Call's Mary Ann Akers has Rep. Bob Ney deflecting a little fire from himself onto Newsweek (not to mention a pound of flesh) by going after Mike Isikoff and Mark Whitaker on the House floor yesterday.
The Wall Street Journal's Joe Hagan surveys the anonymous source policy landscape. LINK
The Journal's editorial board wonders why Newsweek had to be so darned skeptical of the military in the first place.
The New York Post editorial page has this to say: "Let's face it: America is at war. Even if the story were true, printing it would give aid and comfort to the enemy, stiffening the resolve of fanatical Islamist jihadists to kill Americans in the field." LINK
And John Podhoretz agrees in his New York Post column. LINK
Bush agenda:
The Los Angeles Times' Ed Chen writes that at yesterday's event to promote biodiesel, President Bush admitted again there's little he can do in the short run about gas prices. LINK
The Washington Post's Michael Fletcher looks at how President Bush's budget pushes for more money for faith-based groups aimed at alleviating poverty, but includes steep cuts to more traditional anti-poverty programs, giving the smaller religious and community social service programs a larger role than established community development programs. Fletcher uses Baltimore as a case study to examine how the switch would affect poverty-stricken urban areas. LINK
Ceci Connolly of the Washington Post reports that the ACLU filed suit against the Department of Health and Human Services yesterday, saying that a government-funded program promoting abstinence promotes Christianity as a part of it. LINK
The Washington Post's Glenn Kessler curtain-raises the Bush Administration's plan to resolve the outstanding issues of independence in Bosnia and Kosovo, to be presented by Undersecretary of State R. Nicholas Burns in congressional testimony tomorrow and a speech Thursday. The United Nations will appoint an envoy to assess whether Kosovo is ready for independence from Serbia, and will sponsor international negotiations on what degree of independence the country should ultimately have. Former U.N. Ambassador Richard Holbrooke applauds the effort. LINK
The politics of same-sex marriage:
The Los Angeles Times' Elizabeth Mehren writes that in the year since Massachusetts became the only state to allow same-sex marriage, opposition to same-sex marriage has ginned up something fierce from coast to coast. LINK
USA Today's Charisse Jones offers her paper's look at how legal same-sex marriage in Massachusetts has affected the public debate and state legislative actions. LINK
Civilization didn't end when same-sex couples married, writes Deb Price, a nationally syndicated columnist on gay issues and one of the first gay Americans to marry in Canada in 2003. LINK
Leader DeLay, travel, and ethics:
Note two poll items: the aforementioned Pew Research Center how few people are paying attention to Tom DeLay right now. LINK
And a local NBC station poll supposedly found that DeLay's in-district approval rating is (in the conclusion of the pollster) measurably higher than it was a few weeks ago.
The politics of immigration:
The Wall Street Journal's John Harwood turns in a must-read on immigration politics, writing that "its implications for the nation's economy, security and its social fabric pit Republican constituencies against one another, the issue could imperil the party more than anything Democrats could do on their own."
"It is no surprise that border-state lawmakers figure prominently in the effort."
"But the breadth of Mr. McCain's proposal, and its potential to split his party, underscores the challenge of getting it enacted. It would invest more in border security through technology such as unmanned aerial vehicles, while creating an 'essential worker' H-5A visa for immigrants willing to fill low-skilled jobs that Americans won't take. Applicants would have to show that a job is waiting for them, pay a $500 fee, and clear security and medical checks."
"Undocumented workers already here could register for a temporary H-5B visa that would be good for as long as six years. To qualify for permanent legal status, they would have to clear security checks, pay back taxes and a $2,000 fee, and learn English. Hospitals caring for illegal immigrants would be eligible for federal reimbursement."
"Smoothing the path toward legal status is popular with the Republican party's business constituency, from agribusiness executives to a tourism industry with many hotels and restaurants that can't operate without illegal immigrants. It is also popular among the Hispanic swing voters whom Mr. Bush and strategist Karl Rove recognize as vital to lasting Republican dominance."
The Congress:
Perhaps it is now a race to the first veto.
"A fight between centrist and conservative Republicans over a bill to expand federal funding for embryonic stem-cell research has intensified in the past week as the House moves closer to a promised vote."
"With 199 co-sponsors, supporters of the bill are confident that they have enough votes to pass it when leadership brings it to the floor this month, furthering the possibility that this legislation will become the first veto of President Bush's tenure in the White House," reports The Hill's O'Connor. LINK
"The Senate is likely to vote Tuesday to make the Environmental Protection Agency find a better way of measuring automobile fuel economy, to bring more realism to the stickers on the windows of new cars, which consumers have learned always to read but not to trust," reports the New York Times' Matthew Wald. LINK
"The provision, written by Senator Maria Cantwell, Democrat of Washington, and incorporated into the highway bill, which has widespread support, would cut mileage estimates by 10 percent to 30 percent, its backers say."
The Washington Post's stylish Tom Edsall profiles House Majority Whip Roy Blunt (R-MO), whose political machine from the Hill to K Street, including the PACs and alliances with lobbyists "has begun to rival 'DeLay Inc.'" It's an excellent look at the relationship among all the moving parts of government and influence -- and don't miss the chart! LINK
Geoff Earle of The Hill reveals the secrets behind how senators pass their presiding officer time sitting in that oh so visible chair. LINK
"A survey of the junior Republican lawmakers who spend the most time chairing deliberations reveals that many of them do busy work to pass the time during long debates or extended quorum calls. 'I generally try to take up reading material,' says Sen. Jim Talent (R-Mo.). 'Sometimes I return e-mails on my BlackBerry. You're not supposed to, but I do.'"
Brick-a-BRAC:
The Washington Post's Ann Scott Tyson wraps the first day of the BRAC hearings, during which members of the commission asked defense officials how the base closings would affect National Guard and reserve recruiting and retention, and whether the plan to close 62 major bases is premature because it comes before the completion of the Pentagon's quadrennial review of strategy and the look at military transportation capabilities. LINK
John Hendren of the Los Angeles Times writes that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld urged the panel not to mess with the Pentagon's recommendations. LINK
Jerry Miller of the Manchester Union Leader describes how Maine and New Hampshire officials banded together yesterday with Portsmouth Naval Shipyard employees, beseeching BRAC to negate the Pentagon's recommendation of closure. LINK
CAFTA:
Anxious to keep the state's trade options open until the fine print is read and absorbed, Gov. John Lynch revoked New Hampshire's backing for CAFTA last week, writes Manchester Union Leader's Denis Paiste. LINK
2005:
If you missed last night's edition of the "Road to City Hall" on NY1, you need to pause your Note reading now and immediately order yourself a tape.
Not (as Michael Saul, Diane Cardwell, and Pat Healy would have you believe) because you missed Freddy Ferrer making more news on Diallo (we're not sure that he did), but because you missed the Ferrer campaign's current frustration in full display during pollster Jef Pollock and host Dominic Carter's heated exchange over what Pollock sees as the media obsession with the Diallo story. (Not many things leave Howard Wolfson speechless. Believe us when we tell you it is must-see TV.)
There is no doubt that Mr. Ferrer (currently in his third run for City Hall) is still clearly learning about taking an interviewer's bait. Just as there is no doubt that Pollock's head might explode when he reads the Daily News and New York Times accounts of the interview. LINK and LINK
We bet Stephanie Gaskell of the New York Post is glad to see Mayor Mike is taking campaign-related questions at official events again. Bloomberg told reporters that the millions of dollars he is spending on the campaign is not money spent for himself, but for the city. LINK
"Sure, Mayor Bloomberg's campaign has spent $10 million to date - including $267 on tropical fish, $210 for Mets tickets and $255 on a nifty clock that counts down to Election Day."
"But Mayor Bloomberg made no apologies yesterday for his campaign bonanza, which includes $13,931 to the mayor's own company, Bloomberg LP, for online news and information, campaign filings show," writes Dave Saltonstall of the New York Daily News. LINK
House of Labor:
Josh Gerstein of the New York Sun scoops the world in reporting a meeting of representatives from UFCW, IAFF, the AFT, and IBEW to discuss overhaul proposals. LINK
Labor leaders representing more than a third of all union members in the U.S. tendered a policy statement Monday to guide their efforts to overhaul the AFL-CIO, and hinted they would field a candidate within weeks to challenge current federation president John Sweeney if their proposals attracted support.
The document, released jointly by Andrew Stern of the SEIU, James Hoffa of the Teamsters, Terence O'Sullivan of the Laborers, and Bruce Raynor and John Wilhelm of UniteHere, was described as a direct counter to the AFL-CIO's official overhaul recommendation released last month, in which Sweeney called for a continuous and expanded political action campaign and promoted a boost in money and incentives to organizing new members. Sweeney also began to restructure the federation's headquarters staff.
The counter-proposal released Monday envisions an AFL-CIO devoted to organizing millions of new workers, and then using the new numbers to advance their political clout and secure for the workers a higher standard of living. Half of the AFL-CIO's budget -- $60 million -- would be dedicated to organizing. Other duties would include policing competition between unions for new workers, a "direct" hand in merging smaller unions, and a coordinated effort to communicate with the public on health care and benefits issues.
"There is now a united effort to restore the American dream," Stern said in an interview. "Compared to President Sweeney's program, ours is not repackaging what hasn't worked and will actually get something done."
A fifth union president, Joe Hansen of the United Food and Commercial Workers, plans to discuss the counter-proposal with his executive board.
"The AFL-CIO Officers' Proposal continues the status quo, and does not provide for genuine reform to build worker power," he said in a statement critical of Sweeney's plan. "The UFCW supports, and will work for, a unified labor movement, but unity must be based on a shared commitment to revitalize the movement to empower workers."
Sweeney, who came to power in 1995 partly by campaigning on a platform of overhauling the AFL-CIO, does not agree that the two plans differ substantively.
"The ideas in this proposal are quite similar to those we issued a couple weeks ago, and it's hard to imagine why they would be the basis for dividing and weakening the labor movement," he said.
But Wilhelm, who some associates hope will run against Sweeney, said the two documents were not "remotely similar."
"We frankly had hopes that the Sweeney administration would adopt the rhetoric of change, but also the substance, which they didn't," Wilhelm said.
An AFL-CIO official who works with Sweeney said the Wilhelm and the dissidents' presentation seeks to do too much with much fewer centralized resources.
"There's a conflict in their proposal in terms of them saying that federation should do all these things, which they say because they know that people agree with that, and then saying that you should strip out the funding," said the official, who spoke to provide background to Sweeney's comments.
A Sweeney ally at another union called the counter-proposal an "electioneering" effort aimed at undercutting his unopposed re-election bid.
Stern has hinted recently that if Sweeney wins in July, he would pull the SEIU and its 1.8 million members out of the labor federation.
Wilhelm said whether or not he and the others decide to back a candidate to challenge Sweeney depends on whether their plan attracts support from other AFL-CIO unions. "If it turns out, after a few weeks of debate, that the unions representing the majority of the AFL-CIO members, support our proposal, then a leadership change will be required."
If not, said Wilhelm, "then there is no particular reason to elect someone else."
"We've tried the model where we elect a president committed to change and that hope he's able to succeed. He's name was John Sweeney," Stern said. "He ran up against a series of obstacles in terms of the rules of and the culture and the policies of the AFL-CIO. We're not going to do that again and just elect someone."
The four unions' policy statement Monday also recommended mergers among unions in the same industry, seeking to bypass the leaders of these unions by bringing the merger vote directly to members of the affected unions. Sweeney's proposal encourages union consolidation but seeks collaborative efforts among the affected unions.
The counter-proposal seeks to declare labor's political independence, aiming to support only those candidates whose election would benefit workers' standards of living and help ensure labor's growth.
That's a direct challenge to labor's dependence on the Democratic Party. The AFL-CIO's political committee president is AFSCME's Gerald McEntee, a key ally of the Clinton family and the top facilitator of labor's extraordinary closeness to the Democratic Party in the past decade, even as the party supported trade agreements opposed by most AFL-CIO members.
Several unions, including the International Association of Fire Fighters, the Teamsters, the Painters and the Laborers, have aggressively reached out to Republican leaders in recent years, though it's doubtful that a revived labor movement would stray too far from the Democratic Party. Labor relies on Democrats in part to institutionalize its power in Washington, and Democrats rely on labor to fund "grassroots causes" and provide men and women for get-out-the-vote programs.
(Yesterday, UniteHere vice president Clayola Brown and AFSCME's McEntee, along with Senate Democrat leaders, spoke together at a Capitol Hill rally opposing Social Security privatization.)
The dissident unions will send the vision statement to each of the nation's 27,000 locals, central labor councils and state federations.
Sweeney has an edge in the number of unions who now support his candidacy, but several allies have privately indicated they'd be willing to support another candidate, such as AFL-CIO secretary treasurer Richard Trumka, Sweeney's top lieutenant, or someone not closely linked to Sweeney.
A Sweeney aide denied those reports.
The AFL-CIO executive committee meets on June 13 to review the proposals, and two weeks later, the executive council, a larger group of AFL-CIO executives, will vote on which to present to the full membership in July.
Acrimony between the two sides has simmered for months. It escalated since Sweeney's proposal to increase the AFL-CIO's political budget was endorsed at a labor convention in March. The four opposing unions have asked the AFL-CIO to remove their members' names from the master AFL-CIO political contact list. One union allied with Sweeney withdrew money from a bank owned by a union opposed to him. And the machinists union produced a Web video mocking Stern.
Steven Greenhouse of the New York Times emphasizes Stern's call to oust Sweeney. LINK
More from the Washington Post's Tom Edsall: LINK
The Schwarzenegger era:
The Los Angeles Times' Robert Salladay reports that in arming for the special election this fall, the Governator is going after the California state legislature and the labor unions that support it. Mike Murphy's doing polling and holding focus groups on an initiative that would require public employee unions to get their members' blessing before using dues to give to political campaigns. Both Schwarzenegger and his Democratic opponents are beginning their muscle-flexing, and boy do we love it when Murphy talks tough. LINK
"Previously, the governor has said he would not be interested in the union dues initiative. But Democrats have long suspected that he supported it behind the scenes. For one thing, a group helping to fund the union-busting measure is headed by Joel Fox, who also is a key player in pushing the governor's agenda through a group called Citizens to Save California."
"Without prompting, Murphy said the union dues measure would not pass unless Schwarzenegger got behind it. California voters rejected a similar measure in June 1998, but with only 53% of voters against it, a margin small enough, Murphy said, that the governor probably could turn the tide."
"'The fate of the paycheck protection measure is in the governor's hands now,'" Murphy said."
As for measuring his success, Democratic consultant Roger Salazar says not so fast -- remember how much of his "reform" agenda Schwarzenegger has turned away from in terms of the employee pension system and teachers' raises.
The "elusive" Murphy invited some California political reporters to lunch (The San Francisco Chronicle's Carla Marinucci among them) to talk up Gov. Schwarzenegger's "reform to rebuild" campaign for the expected special election. And Note his toe-dipping (or if you believe the L.A. Times story, swan dive) into the paycheck protection ballot measure. LINK
"Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will travel to five states, including the Republican strongholds of Florida and Texas, to raise millions of dollars for a special election in November, and he may take the lead in campaigning for a controversial ballot measure aimed at weakening the political clout of public employee unions."
Media:
Peter Cannellos of the Boston Globe sums up the lessons learned from the Jeff Gannon/James Guckert affair: "Few would argue that the Internet is responsible for all, or even many, of the weaknesses of the Washington journalism culture. But online journalism's ability to transmit loaded anecdotes, images, and symbols to specialty audiences with an ideological hunger for them has helped create a culture in which all news comes with quotation marks around it." LINK
"In response, many mainstream news outlets have vowed to police their standards of fairness and accuracy more aggressively, to establish a clearer contrast with some of their online brethren. But these efforts, such as the recent resignation of a USA Today reporter for borrowing two quotes from a sister paper without attribution, may have backfired: The public remembers only the suggestion of wrongdoing, not the rigorous efforts to explain and atone for any lapses."
Politics:
Mike Prager of the Spokane Spokesman-Review writes that the city council's resolution asking Mayor Jim West to take a formal leave of absence died on a 3-3 vote Monday night, as two members stood by their calls for his resignation. LINK
Robert Pear picks up yesterday's Wall Street Journal story about a new drug advertising code being readied by PhRMA. LINK
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales were among the speakers at a tribute for Lloyd Cutler, writes the New York Times. LINK
The Washington Post's Roxanne Roberts describes the grand gathering honoring Cutler at Constitution Hall. LINK
The Hill's Alexander Bolton takes a look at congressional Democrats' efforts to beef up their national security credentials. LINK
On Mexican President Vicente Fox's call to express regret for his recent controversial comments: "'His call was a step in the right direction,' Sharpton said, 'but a formal apology and more work on these relations are what must happen next,'" Sharpton told the New York Daily News. LINK
AP: "Gov. Rod Blagojevich refused to say Monday if he had been subpoenaed by a grand jury looking into allegations that his chief fund-raiser traded jobs for campaign contributions, but a source close to the investigation confirmed subpoenas had been sent to the governor's office, his major fund-raisers, his political committees and some agency heads." LINK
"Harvard President Lawrence Summers committed his university Monday to spending $50 million over the next decade on a range of programs -- from mentoring to child care to late-night transport -- aimed at improving the climate for women scientists, many of whom were angered by his remarks that questioned female aptitude for top-level math and science," AP reports. LINK
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