O Bury Me Not Under The Goalposts At Giants Stadium

by: kestrel9000

Mon May 11, 2009 at 12:13:47 PM EDT

I remember back in the summer of 1991 I was working as a company man in a Teamsters cannery in Lodi, California, as an emergency medical technician. The politickin' was going on union-wise. That December, the Teamsters, in a contentious election, voted in a guy named Ron Carey as their president.

Remember how that worked out?

Ron Carey served less than a year of his second term. He was accused of engaging in financial improprieties during his re-election campaign in March 1997. As an investigation by federal officials continued, Carey led the union in a nationwide strike against UPS in August 1997 which led to significant contracts gains. But just three months later, Carey took a leave of absence as president due to the ongoing investigation into his 1996 re-election campaign. Carey was barred from running for president the same day he announced his leave of absence, and he was permanently ejected from the union in July 1998. James P. Hoffa was elected president of the Teamsters in December 1998.

So I found this Washington Examiner piece today to be of interest:

Official who gave 'troubling' testimony on McAuliffe now fundraising for him

   A former Democratic Party official who a decade ago described in a federal criminal trial an illicit fundraising swap he said Terry McAuliffe tried to arrange with the Teamsters Union is now raising money for McAuliffe's campaign.

   Richard Sullivan, the Democratic National Committee's former finance director, was a witness in the 1999 trial of a top union official under Teamsters President Ron Carey, the result of a broader investigation into the funneling of union money into Carey's re-election campaign...Federal law prohibits the use of union funds to promote a candidate for union office. The scandal lead to Carey's ouster and to the conviction of some of his associates, who helped siphon more than $800,000 in Teamsters' funds as part of the scheme....McAuliffe's campaign would not comment for this story. Sullivan did not return a call for comment.

Well, of course not.

It just blows my mind that certain prominent and once-respected Virginia bloggers would want to bring this kind of sleaze into the governor's mansion.

(bangs head against wall)