Video: Bill Clinton vs ... the unions?

Yeah, well, up is down in Arkansas these days, with Democrats attempting to win a Senate seat in a red state by going to the left of their own incumbent. Bill Clinton recently ripped the unions for backing Bill Halter and rallied Blanche Lincoln’s supporters by accusing the unions of “manipulating” Arkansans and their votes. That will no doubt wind up in an ad for Republican challenger John Boozman no matter who wins the Democratic primary run-off:

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Here is an article from the Washington Post, it says “Some national unions made a decision a few months ago, that they wanted to make Senator Blanche Lincoln the quote “poster child” for what happens when a Democrat crosses them. This is about using you and manipulating your votes. If you want to be Arkansas’s advocate, vote for somebody who will fight for you. Vote for Blanche Lincoln.

Maybe it’s not just Arkansas, though. Politico reports that unions have become so unpopular and seen as one of the big problems of government cost and inefficiency that 2010 has become open season on unions — and it’s not just Republicans joining in the hunt:

Spurred by state budget crunches and an angry public mood, Republican and some Democratic leaders are focusing with increasing intensity on public workers and the unions that represent them, casting them as overpaid obstacles to good government and demanding cuts in their often-generous benefits.

Unlike past battles over the high cost of labor, this time pitched battles over wages and pensions are being waged from Sacramento to Springfield to New York City and the conflict is marked by its bipartisan tone, with public employee unions emerging as an intransigent public enemy number one in cities and state capitals across the country.

They’re the whipping boys for a new generation of governors who, thanks to a tanking economy and an assist from editorial boards, feel freer than ever to make political targets out of what was once a protected liberal class of teachers, cops, and other public servants.

Republicans around the nation have cheered New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, whose shouting match over budget cuts with an outraged teacher—“You don’t have to” teach, he told her without sympathy—became a YouTube sensation on the right last week.

And even Democrats, like the nominee for governor in New York, Andrew Cuomo, have echoed the attacks on unions.

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When Bill Clinton demonizes unions in a Democratic primary, it feels like one of the signs of the Apocalypse. Perhaps it is a sign of a Democratic apocalypse in these midterms, and also a sign that their decades-marriage to unions and their radical agenda is about to enter divorce court.

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