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 The Bank Shot
* I have been wondering, since Sunday, why the AFL-CIO’s President, John Sweeney, would expend a great deal of energy to have the huge union organization endorse Al Gore when it is clear there is a significant amount of unease among the constituent union leaders for such an act and there is no obviously compelling reason to do it now.
* At first I convinced myself that it was a bank shot. The endorsement was not so much a deal between Sweeney and Gore as it was a deal between Sweeney and Democratic House Leader Dick Gephardt: Endorse the weaker Gore for President, pretty much guarantee a losing Presidential campaign, and all that union money and effort goes into winning back the U.S. House in 2000 or, at the latest, 2002. Gephardt, who is the true darling of the Labor Left, might be able to end his career as Speaker, after all.
* I tried this theory on a number of reporters over the last few days and was given credit for creativity, but not necessarily for sagacity.
* I then called a highly regarded Democrat. This person said I was probably right that the deal was not between Sweeney and Gore. But it was also not a deal between Sweeney and Gephardt. It was most likely a deal between Sweeney and Bill Clinton.
* It’s all tied to the investigations – pending and actual – against various unions, officials, and tangential players. It might also, this person said, have had something to do with Terry McAuliffe, who put up the $1.3 million guarantee so the Clintons could buy their dream home in New York and who is also likely to be called as a witness in a money-laundering scheme between a big union and the Democratic National Committee.
* This Democrat suggests the Sweeney endorsement of Al Gore may be a favor for a favor. In return for not allowing the union investigations to spread any farther than absolutely necessary Clinton gets to present Gore with a huge gift – the AFL-CIO endorsement.
* Meanwhile, the Teamsters have announced they will actively oppose the endorsement. Others of the 68 major unions which make up the AFL-CIO have announced they will, at a minimum, abstain. Sweeney assures he has the necessary two-thirds vote to endorse, but reports are he will not make it by much.
* Thus, the endorsement is the union equivalent of that old punch line: The board of directors has authorized me, by a vote of 5-4, to send you this get well card.
* The Bradley forces at the AFL-CIO convention will have plenty of ammunition to degrade the value of the endorsement, but they will not have been successful at their principal mission: Get the endorsement delayed until after the first of the year.
* The father of Monica Lewinsky, Dr. Bernard Lewinsky, has taken up for his daughter by demanding an apology from the producers of the new cop show, “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.” It seems that in a recent episode one character describes another as “getting a Lewinsky.” We all know what that means. Papa Lewinsky, in a truly unfortunate turn of phrase, said he and his daughter deserved an apology. “It’s not right she be dragged down to the floor again.” Uh, Bernie?
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