Hatch Act

More gawd-awful Clinton Legacy

The cancer that keeps on giving

“ Labor's rising influence was a little-noticed factor in Sen. Clinton's surprise win in the New Hampshire primary last week. She beat Sen. Obama by 7,500 votes out of 290,000 cast -- and with the help of three of the state's largest unions, beat him by 4,000 votes among union workers alone, exit polls suggested. One of those unions, the American Federation of State, Country and Municipal Employees, deployed 100 paid staffers and volunteers to the state to get its 4,000 members there to back Mrs. Clinton. On Election Day, the union team knocked on doors for the Clinton campaign. "I find that people are much more receptive to me than to the campaigns," said Ken Fanjoy, a 53-year-old who plows streets along the state's seacoast. "The first thing I say is, 'I'm with your union.'" - Labor Makes Big Comeback In '08 Races ” One of Bill Clinton's first initiatives as president was getting the Hatch Act amended in 1993, allowing Federal employees to take an active part in political campaigns for Federal offices.  The 1939 Hatch Act was designed to "Prevent Pernicious Political Activities."  It does not take a brainiac to understand that gummint employees are particularly susceptible to political pressures in the workplace, and additionally have a vested interest in seeing their "company" grow and prosper. Through his alliance with the now super-powerful AFSCME president Gerald W. McEntee , Bill Clinton was later able to use federal workers as a  personal political task force.   During his budget showdown with Newt Gingrich, Clinton was assured by McEntee that his people would not complain if the impasse caused  a gummint shutdown, as they had in forcing Bush 41 to "Unread his lips" in 1990. Clinton won that battle, largely because of it. The Hatch Act needs to be reinstated to bar federal employees from ANY political activity.