If you watched Hardball yesterday, you might've caught this exchange between Chris Matthews and Howard Dean in discussing the priorities of President-elect Obama's administration.
Tweety asked Dean about promises made by Obama on the campaign trail and how he would keep them all.
First among his examples was what Matthews called "card check," also known as the Employee Free Choice Act, which would make it easier for people to join unions. Not only did Matthews echo bogus business talking points about "secret ballots," but he falsely suggested Americans don't support unions - neither of which are true.
But Dean fired back. Watch it:
Dean explained that the Employee Free Choice Act is desperately needed by America's middle class and working families in order to raise their wages and help improve the economy. To top it off, Dean talks about the injustice done to America's workers by the Bush Administration.
Tweety struck again - but luckily we have Howard Dean.
To learn more about the Employee Free Choice Act, check out SEIU's explanation of how the bill helps all workers in this tough economy.
Transcript:
MATTHEWS: But most people believe in secret balloting for a union organization. It seems like a very American idea. Can you support that, if labor want to have a card check system, where you just a sign a card to say you want to organize in a private meeting with organizers?
I mean, isn't that a cutting question for most people who are Democrats as, opposed to the general public, who don't support labor-the labor movement?
DEAN: I think the general public does support the labor movement-labor movement, first of all.
Secondly, I think the reason for the card check, so-called card check, is because of the horrendous abuses that the labor movement had to put up with over the last eight years. So...
MATTHEWS: Look, I know the case for it. I'm just telling you, I wonder if it's a unifying issue. I know the case for it, because it's very hard to organize. But is that going to unite the country, those kinds of is?
DEAN: It's not-look, it's not our job to-to put our thumb on the scale in terms of organizing. It is our job to make sure that wages go up, instead of down. They have been going down for the last eight years. It is our job to make sure that working-class and middle class people get their fair share and a fair shake, which they haven't done in the last eight years.
That's what the campaign was all-all about. That was probably the single biggest issue that-that elected Barack Obama and Joe Biden, is, let's do something for middle-class Americans and working-class Americans, who haven't had much done for them in the last eight years.