First thoughts: Labor's concession
Posted: Thursday, December 04, 2008 9:19 AM by Mark Murray
Filed Under:
First Thoughts
From Chuck Todd, Mark Murray, Domenico Montanaro, and Carrie Dann
*** Labor’s concession: At 10:00 am ET this morning, the heads of the Big Three auto companies will testify before the Senate Banking Committee on the auto bailout. Also testifying will be the leader of the United Auto Workers, who yesterday said the union would make concessions in its contracts with the three car companies. From the New York Times: “At a news conference in Detroit, the U.A.W.’s president, Ron Gettelfinger, said that his members were willing to sacrifice job security provisions and financing for retiree health care to keep the two most troubled car companies of the Big Three, General Motors and Chrysler, out of bankruptcy.” (Ford’s financial situation is a bit healthier than the other two.) This is a VERY BIG deal, and could very well help smooth things over to get a bailout through Congress. No doubt, the rest of the labor movement is happy to have the UAW looking like a team player in all this as the big fight comes up next year on the battle to toss out the secret ballot for unionization.
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Video: Former GE Chairman Jack Welch makes a case against a potential auto bailout, explaining that the only way to save the beleaguered industry is through bankruptcy.
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The GOP tax man cometh? The
Wall Street Journal today has a very good piece on how the budget shortfalls in the states are forcing some GOP governors to contemplate raising taxes. “Among the states led by Republicans, Florida may have the biggest headache. Gov. Crist faces a $1.7 billion mid-fiscal-year shortfall, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities… Seeking to balance the budget, Gov. Crist has said he would consider a cigarette-tax increase of 50 cents a pack. A similar situation is playing out in Mississippi, where Gov. Haley Barbour, widely viewed as a star among Republicans, proposed a 24-cent-a-pack cigarette-tax increase and a host of other tobacco-related fees. The combined fees, if implemented, are projected to create $80 million in revenue for a state with a roughly $24 million midyear shortfall." Watching these GOP governors, some of whom have aspirations to run for president in 2012, navigate their base on tax hikes will be interesting. The Club for Growth and anti-tax activist Grover Norquist have been kingmakers on the tax issue in GOP primaries for the last decade. How aggressive will these groups get against GOP governors who turn to some tax increases like the one Barbour agreed to in Mississippi?
*** Can Rangel survive? Charlie Rangel's political career may be in more jeopardy than folks realize. He's aggressively trying to beat back allegations that he got special real estate deals over the years, as well as special tax breaks. He's invited a congressional ethics probe. Rangel's also tearing a page out of the crisis management playbook by trying to blame the media for their coverage of the story. But in this case, the New York Times is fighting back. Democrats usually have a harder time playing the media bias card than Republicans. But Rangel's real problem may be with how aggressively he's trying to save himself. After a private meeting with Speaker Pelosi earlier this week, he came out and said she pledged to back him in his bid to keep his gavel at the Ways and Means Committee. But, apparently, he was too definitive about it, and House leadership folks are now making it clear she didn't totally pledge to keep him in his post. Instead, they said she expected him to be cleared of these charges. Republicans have been trying to ratchet up attention on this Rangel scandal by tagging incoming freshman Dems and asking them to return any money from Rangel. Ways and Means is NOT a minor committee chairmanship. If Rangel doesn't have this issue resolved by the start of the next Congress, don't be surprised if some Democrats push the leadership to at least ask him to step aside temporarily.
*** Tapping Obama’s grassroots army: Is this a sign of things to come? The Washington Post reports that, in the Obama team’s first attempt to use its grassroots network to shape public policy, likely HHS Secretary/Obama health-care czar Tom Daschle yesterday held a conference call with 1,000 supporters to solicit ideas on health-care reform. “The health-care mobilization taking shape before Obama even takes office will include online videos, blogs and e-mail alerts as well as traditional public forums. Already, several thousand people have posted comments on health on the Obama transition Web site.”
Video: With Democrats winning back the White House and taking a majority in both houses of Congress, Republicans are starting to think ahead to 2012. NBC’s Andrea Mitchell reports.***
G-L-A-M-O-R-O-U-S: Just when Palin’s last-day campaigning for the victorious Saxby Chambliss got her some positive coverage, now comes news -- first reported by
National Journal, and confirmed by First Read -- that the RNC will be filing a report with the Federal Election Commission today disclosing that it spent thousands of more dollars (less than $30,000) on clothes/accessories for the Alaska governor. So that amount is IN ADDITION to the $150,000 that was previously reported. The clothing/accessories, a GOP source says, will be donated to local and national charities.
*** Hey, big spender: Speaking of big spenders, some experts are now calling for a stimulus plan that’s as big as $1 trillion. Wasn't there a time when we were kids where a "trillion" sounded like a made-up money word -- you know, "like kajillion"? And what does come next after a trillion? Is it quadrillion? And will we get to that number in something in the U.S. budget, say, by the end of the next decade?
*** The latest in Minnesota: The Minneapolis Star Tribune's count now has Norm Coleman leading Al Franken by 316 votes, with 98% of the recount completed. There are about 6,000 challenged ballots. The Franken camp’s internal count now has him leading by 22 votes. The difference here, as one of us pointed out a couple of days ago, is that the Franken camp is counting the challenged ballots (the way it thinks the independent analysts are counting them). But the Coleman campaign disputes the Franken numbers. The recount will be completed by the end of the week, and the state’s Canvassing Board will make the final call on the challenged ballots on Dec. 16.
Countdown to Electoral Vote Count: 35 days
Countdown to Inauguration Day 2009: 47 days
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