According to an article by Jo Mannies in Sunday’s Post-Dispatch, the yellow dog Democrats in the state of Missouri have once again shown their true colors when faced with standing up to the right-wing politics of the Republican party. Mannies wrote that Hugh McVey, president of the Missouri AFL-CIO, Bob Soutier, president of the St. Louis Labor Council, and Gov. Matt Blunt are “forging a cordial relationship.”
According to Mannies, the forging of this cordial relationship stems from Blunt’s issuing a statement, at the request of Missouri labor, declaring that the governor would veto a right-to-work bill that had been introduced in the Missouri Legislature. McVey’s response to Blunt’s statement was “You’re damn right, I’m a Democrat, but I’ll support anyone who’s for working families.”
The EYE has learned that labor has given Blunt assurances they will lay down for him in 2008. This is a classic example of how middle-class and poor whites get hoodwinked by the right wing. How can Blunt be categorized as a supporter of working families with his plans to cut Medicaid and other safety-net social-service programs that serve many thousands of families?
Blunt didn’t give up anything by opposing right-to-work legislation. He and his political consultants were not going to give labor and the Democratic Party a political wedge as damaging as right to work. Labor’s cozying up to Blunt is indicative of the quisling and spineless nature of Democrats who are trying to win over the right by being the right.