Updated:Obama Promised The Teamsters That He Would End The Oversight And Allow The Mafia Back In…Change the Teamsters can believe in, part 2
Sen. Barack Obama won the endorsement of the Teamsters earlier this year after privately telling the union he supported ending the strict federal oversight imposed to root out corruption, according to officials from the union and the Obama campaign.
It’s an unusual stance for a presidential candidate. Policy makers have largely treated monitoring of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters as a legal matter left to the Justice Department since an independent review board was set up in 1992 to eliminate mob influence in the union.
Sen. Obama’s rival for the Democratic nomination, Sen. Hillary Clinton, has declined to take a stance on Teamsters oversight. During his eight years in office, President Bill Clinton took no action to end the special board. Democratic presidential nominees in 2000 and 2004 ” Al Gore and John Kerry ” didn’t address the issue, according to Teamsters officials.
Neither Sen. Obama nor Teamsters President James P. Hoffa has spoken publicly about easing up federal oversight, a top priority for Mr. Hoffa since he became union president in 1999. On the campaign trail, Mr. Hoffa stresses Sen. Obama’s criticism of the North American Free Trade Agreement as the big factor in winning the 1.4-million member union’s support.
But John Coli, vice president for the Teamsters central region, who brokered the Teamsters endorsement, said Sen. Obama was “pretty definitive that the time had come to start the beginning of the end” of the three-member independent review board that investigates suspect activity in the union. Mr. Coli said that Sen. Obama conveyed that view in a series of phone conversations and meetings with Teamsters officials last year.
Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor confirmed the candidate’s position in a statement to The Wall Street Journal, saying that Sen. Obama believes that the board “has run its course,” because “organized crime influence in the union has drastically declined.” Mr. Vietor said Sen. Obama took that position last year.
It just went away all on its’ own?  Ed has the link to Sawyer interviewing him:
SAWYER: Want to turn to the news of the day. Front page of “The Wall Street Journal” today, it says before you won the endorsement of the Teamsters, you indicated to them you would support ending strict federal oversight of the union, which was imposed back in the early ’90s to deal with corruption. Was that commitment made to them?
SEN. OBAMA: You know, I wouldn’t make any blanket commitments. what I’ve said is that we should take a look at what’s been happening over the Teamsters and at all unions to make sure that, in fact, you know, organized labor is able to represent its membership and engage in collective bargaining in accordance to what we’ve always believed.
SAWYER: But if they heard you to be saying that you did support, you did support lifting this strict federal oversight, are they wrong?
SEN. OBAMA: No, what I’ve said is that I would examine what is going on in terms of the federal oversight that’s been taking place, but it’s been in place for many years, the union has done a terrific job cleaning house, and the question is whether they’re going to be able to get treated just like every other union, whether that time has come and that’s something that I’ll absolutely examine when I’m president of the United States.
If the oversight is constitutional, and corruption is ebbing, why mess with it? Just as the Canadians told us the truth about Obama’s real stance on NAFTA, so too are the Teamsters.
From Powerline:
The Teamsters union has had a long and storied relationship with the Mafia. To take just one vivid example, consider the case of Anthony Senter. Senter was the Mafia hit man who arranged a deal with a Teamsters local for a pension after he was convicted of being a member of a mob hit squad in New York City that committed 25 murders and dismembered most of the victims.
Senter’s attempt to secure a pension from his friends at the Teamsters was disrupted in 1994 by the Independent Review Board. The IRB is the body created by a 1989 consent decree to monitor the Teamsters for corruption. Since 1999 the Teamsters has sought to have the consent decree dissolved. The Department of Justice has not thought that such a good idea. The Teamsters would like new leadership at the Department of Justice with a better attitude.
In 1989 the Teamsters entered into the consent decree with the government. The decree was entered into before, and signed by, Judge David Edelstein of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. The consent decree resolved the government’s prosecution of the Teamsters for racketeering.
Certain provisions of the decree were enforced by a permanent injunction. The injunction ordered the Teamsters to refrain from racketeering activity (as defined under federal law) and from knowingly associating with the Mafia. The consent decree also provided for the creation of the three-member IRB in 1992. The jurisdiction of the IRB is limited to the prevention of corruption, including bribery, embezzlement, extortion, loan sharking, and other serious violations of federal law, or control and influence of the Teamsters by the Mafia.
Today’s page-one Wall Street Journal story shines a spotlight on the Teamsters’ endorsement of Barack Obama. According to the Journal, Obama advised the Teamsters prior to its endorsement of him that he supported dissolving the permanent injunction to which the Teamsters agreed in 1989 and under which it has been operating ever since. Dissolution of the consent decree would require judicial blessing, but if the government were to seek dissolution of the decree, it would be highly likely to secure it.
Taking a leaf from the Clinton scandal management playbook, the Obama campaign dismisses the Journal story as old news. Even it it is old news, the Journal story provides the detail and attention that the story richly deserves.
In 2002, the left-wing Nation magazine frankly condemned Teamsters President Jimmy Hoffa’s goal of eliminating federal oversight of the Teamsers as “a bad idea.” It still is. Are the corruption and exploitation of the Teamsters no longer a serious threat? Someone really should ask Barack Obama why not.
The Nation article notes that in May 2002 the IRB permanently barred from the union two of Hoffa’s closest associates (William Hogan Jr., president of Chicago’s Joint Council 25, and Dane Passo, Hoffa’s former Midwest campaign manager and special assistant). According to the article, they were disciplined for trying over an extended period of time to force the Las Vegas local to permit a mob-linked labor broker (of which Hogan’s brother was vice president) to provide low-wage, nonunion workers for convention setup work, thus threatening to undermine the Teamsters contract and displace union members.
Some Democrats recently sought the impeachment of an attorney general for politicizing justice by the firing of eight United States Attorneys. Many Democrats joined in driving the attorney general from office on the charge. I believe the charge was bogus in the case of Alberto Gonzales. But Democrats are now about to nominate a presidential candidate who is engaged in something that looks very much like the genuine article.
JOHN adds: Barack Obama, old-fashioned corrupt pol! Well, of course, a lot of those corrupt Democratic pols got elected.
Trackposted to Outside the Beltway, Rosemary’s Thoughts, Right Truth, Kodera’s Korner, Shadowscope, DragonLady’s World, The Amboy Times, Democrat=Socialist, third world county, Woman Honor Thyself, DragonLady’s World, Pirate’s Cove, The Pink Flamingo, , Dumb Ox Daily News, Stageleft, Pooh Flinging NeoCons, A Blog For All, 123beta, Big Dog’s Weblog, Cao’s Blog, , Conservative Cat, Diary of the Mad Pigeon, Nuke Gingrich, Faultline USA, Allie is Wired, McCain Blogs, The World According to Carl, Gulf Coast Hurricane Tracker, Wolf Pangloss, and The Yankee Sailor, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.
May 5, 2008 - 02:25 PM on May 5th, 2008
So this is the “change” Obama wants us to believe in? Pandering to special interest groups promising things in exchange for support? Hmmm, isn’t that politics as usual? Seems to me that is politics as usual, with the corruption of the Mob thrown in.
May 5, 2008 - 09:04 PM on May 5th, 2008
Wow, it seems like everyday I find a reason to not support Obama.
May 5, 2008 - 11:09 PM on May 5th, 2008
Gee, a democratic politician from Chicago who’s in favor of allowing the unions to fall back under Mob control. Who’da thunk it?
I will say one thing, if the Mob regains its control on the Teamsters, the roads may become a lot safer because the Mexican trucking companies won’t dare send a truck across the border. The Mob won’t have to bother high jacking American trucks, they’ll be able to snag Mexican ones and with the growing animosity about the illegal alien issue and the crime that they’re bringing across the border with them, a lot of people will turn a blind eye to Mexican trucks being highjacked and the drivers’ bodies being left in the desert.
May 6, 2008 - 07:45 AM on May 6th, 2008
Did Obama actually say he would allow the mafia back into the unions?
My intial impresseion is that this entire scenerio is misplaced. I believe the Fed Governement never makes any sitution better. Thus, they should have no oversight over the unions.
If the unions/teamsters participate in organized crime, then they should be prosecuted, plain and simple.
Goverment is always a bad thing when it comes to things like this. It is still a puzzle to me why anyone who claims to be a consevative, especially a student of the Reagan Conservatives, believes in this type of governement expansion.
May 6, 2008 - 08:37 AM on May 6th, 2008
Tedintheshed yes he did, and for a real political reason obama is from chicago and who is he owned by? just think of the money and follow Obama to the bank.
May 6, 2008 - 08:39 AM on May 6th, 2008
All these labor unions have connections in oganized crime its time to indite them all
May 6, 2008 - 08:48 AM on May 6th, 2008
5.
“Tedintheshed yes he did”
Really?
Can you show me where he said he would let the mafia back in, because I can’t find it anywhere.
Or rather is this a conclusion people are arriving at because:
1) It would be the supposed end result if he ended oversight
2) Folks are in sheeple mode, and are saying in an attempt to demonize him.
May 6, 2008 - 11:12 AM on May 6th, 2008
Hey, Robert you nailed it again and hopefully another nail in his coffin. TedintheShed I don’t have to read it anywhere, because he is the Mafia through and through, only worse! Michelle will make a good Mafia wife. ‘Look out boys, here she comes, she’s man/woman eater!”
If anyone should know about organized crime, Obama is your man. Takes one to know one.
May 6, 2008 - 12:44 PM on May 6th, 2008
“TedintheShed I don’t have to read it anywhere, because he is the Mafia through and through, only worse!”
Really, Carlyne?
First if he is mafia, do you have anything to substantiate that claim?
Also, what do you mean by “only worse”? If you mean a Democratic/Republican, I could not agree more. Those parties have done more to dismantle this country than any other organized crime syndicate could. “Organized crime” is a moniker that fits them well.
May 6, 2008 - 12:57 PM on May 6th, 2008
Of course Obama is involved in organized crime! He is a DemokRat politician, isn’t he? By definition he is in an organized crime syndicate.
I have been saying for the last two years the Democrite Party of today is an organized crime syndicate. Closely related is the Klinton Krime Syndikate.
May 6, 2008 - 01:30 PM on May 6th, 2008
Not a one of them is worth our time of day. We should get paid for our undercover work we do here. We are on go! It’s a thankless job, but someone has to do it. Proof, Ted, is in the pudding Obama is cooking up for us, we’ll eat it soon enough and so will he!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! can’t wait because by the time it gets back to him, it will be curdled.
He’ll have the golden opportunity to eat his “just words.”
May 6, 2008 - 10:31 PM on May 6th, 2008
Is Your Anti-Hispanic Racism Showing?
THIS IS BIASED – THIS IS RACISMI want to tell you about a story I heard today. I am not telling who told it to me. The man is Hispanic. His family has been in New Mexico since the Conquistadors. THEY ARE REPUBLICAN. They h…
May 6, 2008 - 10:44 PM on May 6th, 2008
only a fool will back Obama on anything, but it would be nice to see obama back in his real country, some people who love obama now will hate him in 4 years if he becomes the next ruler of this so called USA.
May 6, 2008 - 10:50 PM on May 6th, 2008
Indiana-North Carolina Coverage
Podcast Show Notes
I talk about the North Carolina and Indiana primaries.
Also John McCain’s decision to speak to racist group La Raza (hat tip: Michelle Malkin.) and his alleged failure to support Bush in 2000.
A Democratic Congressman proposes …
May 6, 2008 - 10:50 PM on May 6th, 2008
Indiana-North Carolina Coverage
Podcast Show Notes
I talk about the North Carolina and Indiana primaries.
Also John McCain’s decision to speak to racist group La Raza (hat tip: Michelle Malkin.) and his alleged failure to support Bush in 2000.
A Democratic Congressman proposes …
May 6, 2008 - 10:56 PM on May 6th, 2008
Obama will cook us all like his terrorist family in Africa and we all know how much his family like eanting Christians after all his half Brother Has Murdered So Many and his father was a really nice guy eating so many if you know what i mean? by the way say goodbye to the ideals of the bill of rights and say hi to some real fascinating times and the Racially and political times will be really worthy of note if any of us are alive to write any books on history.:”>
May 7, 2008 - 05:17 AM on May 7th, 2008
“Of course Obama is involved in organized crime! He is a DemokRat politician, isn’t he? By definition he is in an organized crime syndicate.”
*Nods
Of course Robert you realize, John McCain is part of the Republican crime syndicate also?
So either way voting in this election is supporting criminal activity. T
This is something I don’t understand- why do folks prostitute their morality this way?
May 7, 2008 - 05:52 AM on May 7th, 2008
[...] DragonLady’s World, Pirate’s Cove, The Pink Flamingo, , Dumb Ox Daily News, Stageleft, Right Voices, Pooh Flinging NeoCons, A Blog For All, 123beta, Big Dog’s Weblog, Cao’s Blog, , [...]
May 7, 2008 - 09:13 AM on May 7th, 2008
[...] Cove, The Pink Flamingo, Big Dog’s Weblog, Dumb Ox Daily News, Democrat=Socialist, and Right Voices, thanks to Linkfest Haven [...]
May 7, 2008 - 09:50 AM on May 7th, 2008
Okay, it finally happened
I’ve been blogging since July 5, 2004, and I promised in 2005 that I would post everyday. Even if it was only to say hi, even when I was sick, I managed to keep that promise…until yesterday
May 7, 2008 - 10:23 AM on May 7th, 2008
Obama lied, and lied, and lied…
Monkey in the Middle has a MUST READ article on Barack Hussein Obama and his lies. Here’s just a sample: Barack Hussein Mohammad Obama said that he and his mother were on Food Stamps. Lie. (See Sweetness and Light) [Barack
May 7, 2008 - 04:48 PM on May 7th, 2008
Low Class Dem Official/Blogger Mocks McCain Military Service
You can always count on John over at Bay Area Houston to show class and dignity when commenting on political issues — not. Over at his site, incontinence jokes about John McCain are considered deep thought. And a Photoshopped picture…
May 7, 2008 - 04:52 PM on May 7th, 2008
A Sentiment I Agree With From A Writer I Usually Don’t
I don’t particularly agree with outspoken atheist Sam Harris on much of anything. Our world-views are strikingly different, based in large part upon our respective views of religion. That said, he hits the nail right on the head in a…
May 7, 2008 - 05:29 PM on May 7th, 2008
JunK FooD JunkieS
Alright sweet friends. I know you don’t live on broccoli alone.
What’s your weakness.
…
May 7, 2008 - 08:46 PM on May 7th, 2008
A Pink Flamingo Special Guest Report – From Sally Vee
AIRING AYERS & OBAMAA Pink Flamingo guest article by Sally VeeWe have Mayor Richard M. Daley of Chicago to thank for the reinvention and legitimization of the vile human being known as William Ayers. Daley magnanimously forgave and waved his …
May 8, 2008 - 01:33 AM on May 8th, 2008
Pay Close Attention John McCain
Nevertheless, I have a message for the GOP heir to the throne of a morphed form of whatever it is they are promoting. The people of the United States are people that are far more “right” than they are “left”. A picture says it all:
May 8, 2008 - 01:39 AM on May 8th, 2008
Why won’t Hillary quit? Racism…of course
All along the Obama-maniacs have used racism as their trump card. Any criticism of him was racist, pure as simple.
So according to this piece at the NY Daily News, that is also why Hillary won’t quit: Racism and bigotry. S…
May 8, 2008 - 07:28 AM on May 8th, 2008
COBRA COMMANDER FOR PRESIDENT
Folks, its all here. Olivia Munn, a psycho in a helmet and the promise to be able to smell with your tongue. Get on board. Cobra Commander is the future.
Trackposted to Rosemary’s Thoughts, A Blog For All, 123beta, Right Truth, jamesloganm…
May 8, 2008 - 08:03 AM on May 8th, 2008
[...] third world county, Faultline USA, Woman Honor Thyself, McCain Blogs, The Pink Flamingo, , Right Voices, and The Yankee Sailor, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe. Sphere: Related Content If you liked [...]
May 8, 2008 - 10:11 AM on May 8th, 2008
[...] Cove, The Pink Flamingo, Gulf Coast Hurricane Tracker, Dumb Ox Daily News, A Newt One, Stageleft, Right Voices, and The Yankee Sailor. Also thanks to Linkfest Haven [...]
May 8, 2008 - 10:14 AM on May 8th, 2008
Godly Wisdom — May 7, 2008
Speak Good Words And You Will Enjoy The Consequences
…