The ‘Big Labor’ Skeletons In Rick Santorum’s Closet: Are They Real?
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With Rick Santorum hot on his heels, Mitt Romney is launching a new, and somewhat puzzling, line of attack against his resurging GOP rival.
“Big Labor’s Favorite Senator” read the bold headline on the Romney camp’s latest opposition research e-mail to reporters, which was rife with examples of Santorum’s breaking Republican ranks to cozy up with unions.
But the unions Romney accuses Santorum of supporting don’t feel the same way.
“There is no support for Rick Santorum in the labor movement,” said Rick Bloomingdale, president of the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO. “That just shows how far right that this race has moved. The fact that Rick Santorum is being considered a moderate is the most absurd thing I’ve ever heard.”
According to the AFL-CIO’s yearly report card on Senate voting records, Santorum voted “right,” or in support of labor unions, about 13 percent of the time in 2006 and 11 percent of the time in 2005, placing him on par with the majority of Senate Republicans.
“How can you even begin to believe that’s supportive of labor?” Bloomingdale said of Santorum’s voting record. “Did he give us a couple of votes throughout his career? Sure. But he voted against working families much more than he voted for them.”
Jack Shea, president of the Allegheny County Labor Council, which represents union workers in and around Pittsburgh, said his group fought against Santorum during his House and Senate campaigns.
“We never considered Rick to be a friend of the worker, not at all,” Shea said. “The only time Rick Santorum was close to blue collar was when he was putting his shirt on.”
In the 16 years Santorum served in Congress, he supported pro-union measures a handful of times.
As a freshman senator in 1996, Santorum voted against a national “right to work” bill that would have enabled workers to opt-out of paying union dues.
He also voted in favor of barring companies from firing striking workers and supported a bill to re-affirm the Davis-Bacon Act, which ensures that construction workers on federal projects are paid at least as much as their private sector counterparts.
Santorum said he supported these pro-union measures out of respect to the standing laws of the state he was representing.
“I would change those laws within Pennsylvania, but I’m not going to have the federal government change the law for the state of Pennsylvania,” Santorum said on Fox News Sunday in January. “You don’t have the federal government impose those [laws] on the state when the state decided differently.”
As Romney works to paint Santorum as a union supporter, he is portraying himself as the candidate that will take on “union bosses.”
“I happen to believe that you can protect the interests of American taxpayers, and you can protect a great industry like automobiles without having to give in to the [United Auto Workers union], and I sure won’t,” Romney said Wednesday at a campaign stop in Michigan.
But Romney’s plea to non-union voters is a precarious one. The similarly pro-”right to work” argument he made during his 2008 White House bid paid off, especially in Michigan where Romney and Santorum are both going all-in this time around.
While the 28 percent of unionized Michigan voters split evenly between Romney and his GOP rival John McCain in 2008, non-union households favored Romney by 11 points, helping him win the state.
But the opposite story unfolded in 2000 when McCain and then-rival George W. Bush split the non-union vote evenly and McCain was boosted to victory by the support of union voters, 61 percent of whom chose McCain compared to the 34 percent who chose Bush.
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As the son of a coal miner I find it insulting that Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney use their so-called blue collar roots when they have totally forgotten were they came from. No self respecting coal miner or steelworker in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Kentucky or Tennessee would ever vote republican. Most of them remember he bitter fights with the coal and steel companies to achieve a decent wage and safer working conditions.
These guys are no more blue collar than Paris Hilton is.
Posted by: tmferretti | February 17, 2012, 8:34 am 8:34 am
While there is much infighting going on between candidates trying to become the GOP nominee, I think it is likely there will be a brokered convention and when a candidate finally emerges the republicans will unite behind that candidate. What die hard republicans and democrats don’t seem to realize is the rest of us vote for the lesser of 2 evils. At this time the democrats are recklessly driving this country towards bankruptcy.
Posted by: karek40 | February 17, 2012, 9:01 am 9:01 am
I suspect that when President Obama wins re-election and if the republican “do nothing” members lose their seats in the House, that the Republican Party will split into two parties. The moderates and conservatives are so ideologically different that they will never be compatible with each other. A lot of moderates will become democrats.
Also the republicans will lose power for the next fifty years, just as they did after the Great Depression.
Posted by: tmferretti | February 17, 2012, 9:10 am 9:10 am
Santorum is simply too far right and out-of-touch to be electable. Some of his ideas and opinions are unbelieveably ignorant, and ignore the past 100 years of progress in this country. He does not represent most Americans.
Posted by: Billy Bob | February 17, 2012, 10:08 am 10:08 am
I suspect that when President Obama wins re-election and if the republican “do nothing” members lose their seats in the House, that the Republican Party will split into two parties. The moderates and conservatives are so ideologically different that they will never be compatible with each other. A lot of moderates will become democrats.
Also the republicans will lose power for the next fifty years, just as they did after the Great Depression.
Posted by: tmferretti
_________________
Well, that’s wishful thinking tmferrett, however, since Jimmy Carter, the Democratic party has traditionally been the one with all the divisions, including the deep division between Hillary and Obama in 2008. If the Republicans were going to split into two parties, they would have done so years ago.
As for 2012, Even if Obama wins, it is hardly likely that both houses of Congress will fall to the Democrats. That IS a fantasy. You’d be great for Disneyland!
As for Obama getting re-elected, I don’t know what gas prices are around where YOU live but where I live they are nearly $4.00/gallon High gas prices lead to a rise in unemployment as they always did under Obama. If your hero is going to win in 2012 you’d better pray gas prices start to go back down or this wonderful economic recovery Obama is taking credit for, as well as his re-election chances will disappear with fairy dust. .
Posted by: ivan | February 17, 2012, 11:54 am 11:54 am
Billy Bob, What you said…
If the “big labor” skeletons aren’t for real, the homophobic, misogynistic ones are certainly alive & kickin’.
Posted by: Christine | February 17, 2012, 11:57 am 11:57 am
Santorum is simply too far right and out-of-touch to be electable. Some of his ideas and opinions are unbelieveably ignorant, and ignore the past 100 years of progress in this country. He does not represent most Americans.
Posted by: Billy Bob
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It may be a factor in the general election, however, the Michigan primary is not the general election. It is a Republican primary and Santorum is supposedly ahead of Romney because he appeals to conservative voters.
According to the unions, Santorum voted for them 13% of the time, which according to the unions makes him anti-union because he voted against them 87% of the time. The fact is, though, if Santorum were as conservative as he wants the conservatives to think he is, he would have voted against the unions 100% of the time.
Posted by: ivan | February 17, 2012, 12:04 pm 12:04 pm
Ivan wrote “It may be a factor in the general election, however, the Michigan primary is not the general election. It is a Republican primary and Santorum is supposedly ahead of Romney because he appeals to conservative voters.”
He may appeal to the conservatives, but he doesn’t and won’t appeal to the independents in the general election. As such, expect four more years of Obama….
Posted by: Working_Class | February 17, 2012, 12:17 pm 12:17 pm
Obama DNC MEDIA ,AIRHEAD PALIN ( To make big $$$$$) ,still attack Romney because they Know much HARDER TIME DEFEATING ROMNEY THAN THE OTHER ANY 3 STOOGES.
Posted by: lisa | February 17, 2012, 12:59 pm 12:59 pm
It seems strange to me that Santorum earned most of his income from a company called Excelsior LLC. From what I could find out, this is a Russian company doing most of its business with the Russian space industry. Supposedly he even helped co-found this company, which is headquartered in Russia. Makes you wonder whose interests he really has in heart and who’s side he is really on. Talk is cheap, although Rick is payed extremely well for lobbying for foreign companys.
Posted by: Andy | February 17, 2012, 1:47 pm 1:47 pm
I think both Santorum and Romney are doing the only thing they know which seems to be appealing to the wealthy. They both seem so out of touch with what’s really going on in this country that it’s ridiculous. I hope the fact that the rich make up only 1% of our population comes back to bite them hard in the back side.
Posted by: MP | February 17, 2012, 2:23 pm 2:23 pm
:)
Posted by: LIPTIMADA | February 17, 2012, 3:33 pm 3:33 pm