AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka Endorses Scott McAdams (D-AK) for Senate
Richard Trumka, President of the AFL-CIO was in Anchorage this week, and took the opportunity to endorse the biggest rising star in the 2010 senate race, Sitka Mayor Scott McAdams -
This country doesn’t need a Joe Miller. We have enough of those in Washington DC right now. Mitch McConnell is like a Joe Miller, if you will, wanting to do away with Social Security, wanting to do away with public education, wanting to do away with all kinds of things.
We don’t need people like that, we need people that can solve problems, and create jobs, and put America back to work, and rebuild the middle class. I think that Scott has that sensitivity. I think that’s where he comes from. He’s a union person, he understands what union workers go through, he understands what workers go through, period. And I think that he’d be a great voice and a great asset to workers, in Washington DC.
I think he brings a real breath of fresh air, because he’s not a professional politician who’s made a living out of lying to people. Well, maybe not even lying, maybe that’s the wrong word – shading the truth to make you believe what they want you to believe, is probably more accurate. I think he says what he says, and means what he says.
Richard Trumpka is my new hero. Here’s what he had to say about Sarah Palin at the AFL/CIO Convention in Anchorage last week. He NAILED it!
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“What is this crazy magnet that’s pulling people to the right? I mean, look at your former governor….
Who is she, anyway?
Sarah Palin?
She used to have a job, your governor…. You knew her…. Or thought you did…. I know I thought I did. She seemed like a decent person, an outdoorswoman. Her husband’s a steelworker. She seemed to take some OK stands for working families.
And then things got weird. After she tied herself to John McCain and they lost, she blew off Alaska. I guess she figured she’d trade up…shoot for a national stage. Alaska was too far from the FOX TV spotlight.
I bet most of you, on a clear day, can see her hypocrisy from your house.
I think Sarah Palin quit so she wouldn’t have to be accountable… so she wouldn’t have a record that could be scrutinized…
Instead, she’s hanging out on cable TV, almost a parody of herself, coming out with conspiracy theories about Obama and his “death panels….” Talking about “the real America.” Talking about building schools in “our neighboring country of Afghanistan.” Writing speech notes to herself on her hands.
Sometimes – about Sarah Palin – you just have to laugh…. But it’s not really funny. In this charged political environment, her kind of talk gets dangerous. “Don’t retreat… reload” may seem clever, the kind of bull you hear all the time, but put it in context. She’s using crosshairs to illustrate targeted legislators. She’s on the wrong side of the line there. She’s getting close to calling for violence. And some of her fans take that stuff seriously. We’ve got legislators in America who have been living with death threats since the health care votes.
And down in Tyler, Texas, she’s talking about—and I quote— “union thugs.” What? Her husband’s a union man. Is she calling him a thug? Sarah Palin ought to know what union men and women are.
Oh, she goes to great pains to talk differently about unions and the working people who belong to them, knowing full well we’re one and the same.
But using the term “union thug.” That’s poisonous. There’s history behind that rhetoric. That’s how bosses and politicians in decades past justified the terrorizing of workers, the murdering of organizers….
To me, it just doesn’t seem OK to go where she’s going…. It sits wrong with me…. The Mama Grizzlies, Sarah Palin says, just sense when something’s not right. Well… I wonder if those Mama Grizzlies can sense something’s just not right with her.
Quite frankly, America works because lots of people contribute lots of ideas—that’s good—even when some of them are just plain wrong. But people need to come to the table in good faith. That’s not Sarah Palin. She’ll go down in history like McCarthy. Palinism will become an ugly word.
Who is this woman, anyway? What happened to her?”
This needs to go viral. Thanks Sourdough.
“Who is this woman, anyway? What happened to her?”
Precisely.
AFL-CIO endorsement . . . sweet!
I think this is just Trumka’s personal thoughts, not an AFL-CIO endorsement, unless someone has seen the AFL-CIO press release (is there an AFL-CIO endorsement yet?)
My brother, my hero!
I like Richard Trumka. If he keeps this up, I’ll have to replace Grayson’s poster on my wall!
I know how you feel! We need more folks speaking up as strongly as this!
Perhaps this kind of rhetoric will re-energize President Obama. All three – Trumk, Grayson, and Obama – share a gift to energize, to generate enthusiasm and to say what needs to be said. May all three voices gain volume and frequency as we head towards the mid-terms in just over 60 days!
Surely there is room on all our walls for more stand-up guys and gals who say what they mean and mean what they say!
Or get a bigger wall so you can have both!
Very nice.
Go Scott !!!!
There’s a new wrinkle in this scenario.
“The vice chairman of the Alaska Libertarians says his party will not consider putting U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski on his party’s ticket in the general election.
Harley Brown says Murkowski’s positions do not reflect the values of the Libertarian Party.”
Also, Miller is asking for a state investigation into possible vote tampering by Murkowski’s campaign.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08/30/lisa-murkowski-libertaria_n_699411.html
OK so he is ahead – and he believes someone is vote tampering. Interesting conclusion on his part.
I don’t know that he actually believes someone is vote tampering. He may just be slinging mud. With a bazooka.
Nah, he believes no such thing, IMO. This is the Koch brothers telling him what to say. He’s their little ventriloquist’s dummy, make that ventriloquists’ dummy (there’s more than one Koch). Just one woman’s opinion. Make a fuss, so should he ultimately lose to Lease-A, it looks suspicious.
Miller is the reason why……………Everyone in Alaska should get McAdams sign in their yard and a McAdams bumpersticker on their car, truck, boat, motorcycle, bike, or horse.
If you weren’t going to vote, this is the year to vote.
If you were only going to vote, this is the year to get a yard sign.
If you were only going to get a yard sign, this is the year to give money.
If you were only going to give money, this is the year to get active in the campaign.
We each need to take our involvement up a notch or two. Or three.
Well said John! I liked your ‘ladder of involvement’, also too.
I second that!
What a great evolution! John, we may all want to borrow your advice and spread it around (with attributions to you, of course). Thanks!
Alaskaformcadams@gmail.com will get you a sign when they’re ready! Thanks for the words of encouragement and inspiration!
John, I’d like to share your involvement ladder on Facebook. If ever there was a comment that needed to go viral, yours does. It applies to every race and every voter in this country. Let this be the year we all take back our country from the Corporations, the haters and those who would exploit us for their own greed!
It’s Van Flea and the Palin philosophy… yell first and loudest about the OTHER guy doing what you already ARE doing….