California:Who Does Labor Love?

Apparently no one. Good article by Harold Meyerson in the LA Weekly on labor's luke-warm support for Gray Davis -- not because they like Gray, but to prevent what could be a precident-setting theft of a democratic election.

Union chiefs tell horror stories of Davis’ reluctance to agree to last year’s bill providing arbitration in farm-labor disputes; they note his aversion to populist causes and add that Davis is so shy about touting the good bills he has signed that their members don’t credit him with any significant achievements.

But the prospect of Dianne Feinstein is worse.

In just the past several weeks, Feinstein has sided in committee with Orrin Hatch, and against all her fellow Democrats, to limit the recompense workers can collect from employers for poisoning them with asbestos. She has come out in favor of private-school vouchers within the District of Columbia. And who can forget her vote for Bush’s 2001 tax cut, the only one of the 12 Democratic senators to side with Bush who came from a solidly Democratic state?

Of course all of this was written before Arnold, Bustamante and Garamendi got in, and before Feinstein got out. So who knows which way is up at this point. Maybe Davis should just resign. Democrat Bustamante becomes Governor, the recall is off and the R's are left sucking their thumbs.