I almost missed it during Palin's speech last night, but her husband Todd, aka the "First Dude" of Alaska, is a member of the United Steelworkers:
He's a lifelong commercial fisherman … a production operator in the oil fields of Alaska's North Slope … a proud member of the United Steel Workers' Union …Throw in his Yup'ik Eskimo ancestry, and it all makes for quite a package.
Well, yes, his union membership does make for an interesting Republican package. But could Todd's union membership make a McCain-Palin administration more union-friendly? Well, it's almost impossible to imagine, given McCain's record. Don't miss this blistering blog post addressed to Sarah Palin from United Steelworkers International President Leo W. Gerard. Palin, he writes,
needs to stop trotting out her husband as an exhibit until she explains her positions on workers’ issues. Just exactly where does she stand on the Employee Free Choice Act?
…Are you with McCain – and against workers – on these issues? If so, you need to stop using your husband’s membership in the USW as a prop, because then his union card cannot possibly cover up your or John McCain’s worker-savaging positions.
Ouch. Really worth a close read.
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Jeremy Gantz is an In These Times contributing editor working at Time magazine.
