Michael Graham
The Boston Herald
4/9/2010
Talk about street cred. I just got called “dangerous” by the head of a labor union.
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka was at Harvard Wednesday night, denouncing talk show hosts like yours truly as “apostles of hatred.” He accused Glenn Beck (the only host he called out by name) and the rest of us supporting the Tea Party crowd of being a “similar movement” to the “Nazi-style” fascism of the 1930s with its “racial hatred and political violence.”
A labor leader disturbed by possible “political violence”? That’s a switch. When I think of “kinder, gentler labor action,” I assume that means being told to “watch your head” as they close the trunk of the Caddy.
After all, this is the same Richard Trumka who, while with the United Mine Workers, was notorious for his fiery rhetoric. In fact, Trumka and other UMW officials were charged in a $27 million wrongful death suit by the widow of a non-union contractor shot in the back of the head while leaving a worksite in 1993. The UMW settled that suit.
There’s been a lot of talk lately about threats and potential violence allegedly on the rise from opponents of Obamacare. What there hasn’t been much of is reporting of actual violence. Take, for example, a news story from the morning of Trumka’s speech:
“Union protester attacks Tea Partier at Fort Lauderdale Townhall Meeting.”
It wasn’t the first time and is unlikely to be the last. Over the summer, Kenneth Gladney was jumped by SEIU members, at least one of whom dropped the “N” bomb on him.
Meanwhile, the same week union chief Trumka was warning about the rise of talk-radio fascism, the head of the IRS was telling a different story…
The article continues at The Boston Herald.
