When Republican candidate for governor Tom Foley addressed the Connecticut AFL-CIO, he was perhaps more frostily received than he may have imagined.
Foley’s address to
the crowd was summarized by one newspaper this way: “The Greenwich businessman devoted much of his speech in an
attempt at convincing the delegates that, if elected, he will not propose
legislation similar to the collective bargaining regulations passed by
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker.
The anti-Scott
Walker crowd wasn’t buying it. And when Mr. Foley sought to explain a phrase he
had earlier used – “Looking for a Wisconsin moment in Connecticut… means I'm
hoping we go from one-party rule to more balanced government, as Wisconsin did
in 2010. It does not mean I will change the way collective bargaining works in
our state." – titters arose.
“Did I say something funny,” Mr. Foley asked?
It did not fare
better with Mr. Foley’s opposite number, Jonathan Pelto, who is running for
governor this year as an independent. Mr. Pelto said he was not permitted by organizers of the event to address the gathering. Just as some wayward Catholics consider themselves holier than the Pope,
so it may be said of Mr. Pelto that he considers himself more of a union man
than Governor Dannel Malloy. Mr. Malloy was warmly embraced as a sort of union
steward in residence at the Governor’s mansion by AFL-CIO unionists on the same
day Mr. Foley was amusingly attempting to put some distance between himself and
Mr. Walker.
Mr. Malloy’s address
was preceded by sweet and sour remarks made by AFSCME President Lee Saunders, whose vote for governor, judging from a
report in CTNewsJunkie, is not in dispute:
“We haven’t always agreed with him… but the governor’s record of
supporting working families is very clear. He consistently supports the right
to organize. If you don’t want another Wisconsin, then don’t listen to his
[Foley’s] rhetoric because he will tell you anything, then he’ll try to kill
you if he gets elected.”
The red meat Mr.
Malloy threw to the lions was gratefully gobbled up: "There's a problem in
America and you can read about it, you can understand it, if you take the time
to read or listen: It's that the middle class is getting pretty badly beaten
up. The union movement, which in so many ways is responsible for the growth of
the middle class in America, seems to have a target on its back in state after
state after state… Let's be very clear. I stand with labor. I always have. I
always will. It goes back to who I am and what I am."
Not only did Mr.
Malloy identify with unions, he identified the middle class exclusively with
unions, a rhetorical closed shop. While
most public sector unionists belong to the middle class, every middle class
worker, much to the regret of the AFL-CIO, is not a member of a union. It is
yet undecided at what point one’s assets shove one out of the middle class.
Though he sometime sounds like a dockworker, Mr. Malloy, who recently sold his
house for a million and a half, is far wealthier than, say, any non-unionized
middle class worker in Connecticut who continues to be hit by the largest tax
increase in state history, thanks to Mr. Malloy’s sense of “shared sacrifice.”
Senator Dick Blumenthal, the fourth richest member of the U.S. Senate, will
never be able to shake his Harvard education or speak in the accents of Mr.
Saunders. Never-the-less, both he and U.S. Representative Rosa DeLauro, also
asset rich, are firmly in the union camp. But then union affection is not tied
to personal assets. One is drawn into the union shop by one’s ideological nose.
Which is why Mr.
Foley’s musings were so amusing to the AFL-CIO honchos. Mr. Pelto’s rejection simply means that union
leaders in Connecticut have already plighted their troth to Mr. Malloy.
It was Mob accountant Otto Biederman, known as Otto "Abbadabba"
Berman (1891–1935), who was credited with coining the phrase "Nothing
personal, it's just business."
Shabbily treated by AFL-CIO leaders, Mr. Pelto might well console himself in his hour of sorrow -- Nothing personal Jon, it's just politics. Mr. Foley's thumps, on the other hand, are less worrisome because they were expected.
Shabbily treated by AFL-CIO leaders, Mr. Pelto might well console himself in his hour of sorrow -- Nothing personal Jon, it's just politics. Mr. Foley's thumps, on the other hand, are less worrisome because they were expected.
Comments
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Born January 9, 1952 (age 62)
Evanston, Illinois, U.S.
He went to Phillips Academy Andover and received an A.B. in Economics from Harvard and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.
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Mr. Foley does not view the Trumka gang as a threat of leonine proportions.
In the establishment New England Republican Party he fits purr-fectly; a real pussy cat.