Democrats deride special interests; promise union members unicorns for their children

In another of its wonderrful, nonironic juxtapositions today, the Washington Post ran the following two stories:

1. "Dean Sharpens Rhetoric on Bush", in which that august personage is quoted as saying, among other pithy bits of down home wisdom, that his supporters should

"lead a modern-day grass-roots campaign to oust the president by pointing to the Revolution as a comparison. 'A King George, who had forgotten his own people in favor of special interests, was replaced by a government of, by and for the people,' he said.

The article contains similar claims by Edwards and others.

2. "Democratic Hopefuls Cool on Free Trade". And why are they cool, you might ask? Because free trade supposedly hurts unions, of course. And the article notes that both Dean and Edwards, among others, wants to "reopen" NAFTA and require Mexico to impose the same labor standards as American companies.

Now, I understand that complaining that the current government is beholden to special interests is part of what all candidates do. And I also understand that promising programs to help your base is an equally important part of the political playbook. But something about this is so unseemly, given that unions are the single most important special interest to whom the Democrats are beholden, and promises to "reopen" NAFTA are just shamleless sops to them.
- posted by Anonymous @ 8:49 AM