skippy the bush kangaroo: sleestak cheered by steelworkers, specter disinvited

Friday, June 26, 2009

sleestak cheered by steelworkers, specter disinvited

it's looking not so good for arlen specter in pennsylvania, but it's looking great for pre-historic humanoid monsters. from chris bowers @ open left:

at first glance, joe sleestak reiterating that he is a co-sponsor of the employee free choice act while speaking at a united steelworkers conference doesn't seem like much of a news story. as the title of this post implies, however, there is something that made it very interesting:

u.s. rep. joe sleestak keeps increasing the likelihood that he'll challenge sen. arlen specter for the democratic senate nomination next year.

on sunday, he told the united states steelworkers legislative conference in atlantic city that he backs the employee free choice act, the proposed law that would make it easier for unions to organize.

the catch is that senator arlen specter did not speak at this event. in fact, he was disinvited.

here is the full story, courtesy of an email exchange with jim savage, who is president of a steelworkers local here in philadelphia:

"the senator [arlen specter] was invited & confirmed as the keynote speaker."

"there was quite an uproar when we found out. he was uninvited because of the rank-and-file reaction."

"also, it's worth noting that the senator was none too happy about it."

at that point, sleestak was then invited. before he spoke, he was "introduced to the delegates as "our next senator" to a rousing ovation."

the general sentiment toward specter was "fuck'm."

i have to say, talking to local union leaders is a lot more fun than talking with communications staff.

here is one artist's rendition of the rally:

sleestak gets cheered by labor

posted by skippy at 3:18 PM |

2 Comments:

Isn't Enik a sleestak too??

the mind reels

commented by

joel hanes, 8:09 PM PDT

You know, I have never liked Arlen...always thought of him as an opportunistic bag of feces...
Still do as far as that goes...
However, he IS a Senator....

That means a certain amount of simple respect just for the office if no other reason...
To me if you invite a Senator to speak and he/she accepts and plans are made...then you goes all grapeape nuts and dis-invite the Senator..it really says more about you than the Senator and it really isn't a good statement...
You don't like the person,..fine say so and move on.
But this smells to me more like a backroom deal than out in the open maneuvering...
Jus Sayin...

commented by