Obama administration criticizes organized labor; organized labor hits back

As first reported by Politico.com, the Obama Administration clearly doesn’t think much of organized labor after labor came out in full support of Lt. Governor Bill Halter in his primary challenge to incumbent Democratic Sen. Blanche Lincoln in Arkansas. Halter, who last month forced a primary runoff with Sen. Lincoln, lost the Democratic U.S. Senate primary 52-48, and in response to Sen. Lincoln’s win over Halter, an unnamed White House official issued the following statement:

“Organized labor just flushed $10 million of their members’ money down the toilet on a pointless exercise,” the official said. “If even half that total had been well-targeted and applied in key House races across this country, that could have made a real difference in November.”

In response to the statement by the unnamed White House official, AFL-CIO spokesman Eddie Vale issued a statement taking the White House to task:

“If that’s their take on this, then they severely misread how the electorate feels and how we’re running our political program. When we say we’re only going to support elected officials who support our issues,” said AFL-CIO spokesman Eddie Vale. “When they say we should have targeted our money among some key house races among Blue Dog Democrats — that ain’t happening.”

“Labor isn’t an arm of the Democratic Party,” Vale said. “It exists to support working families. And that’s what we said tonight, and that’s what we’re gong to keep saying.”

Driving home the point that the White House was cravenly hiding behind the cloak of anonymity in their attacks, Vale ended his statement by saying, “My name is Eddie Vale of the AFL-CIO and I’m proud to fight for working families and I don’t hide behind anonymous quotes.”