Obama promises Card Check passage. (Is Lincoln a “Nay”?)

If Sen. Lincoln doesn't vote for Card Check, will she get to address the next convention?

K. Ryan James Blog - As I begin to craft this post, I bid good morning to Sen. Blanche Lincoln because it's on now:

MIAMI - President Barack Obama told AFL-CIO union leaders Tuesday in a videotaped address that the controversial Employee Free Choice Act will pass, signaling his full backing for legislation that makes union organizing easier.

We will pass the Employee Free Choice Act," President Obama told more than 100 top labor officials in a closed-door meeting at the labor federation’s winter gathering in Miami, according to people at the meeting.

The bill would make it easier for unions to recruit workers because it would let them join unions simply by signing cards rather than through secret-ballot elections in which companies can campaign against the union. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other business organizations have been campaigning against the legislation.

The president’s remarks were taped on Feb. 20, according to a White House spokesman. Following his remarks, AFL-CIO officials held a meeting with Labor Secretary Hilda Solis.

So, there you have it. A promise from the Head of State that Card Check will be passed this year. This is a straight-up attack on the secret ballot rights of American workers which can’t be explained away.

Here is a brief list to bring you up to date on some major events in the controversy of Card Check and Sen. Lincoln:

• The November rejection of the liberal policies of Mr. Obama by the people of the State of Arkansas.
• The December declaration from Mrs. Lincoln that strengthening the nation's economy means "not focusing on the Employee Free Choice Act."
• The January promise by Vice President Joe Biden (who will visit Arkansas to raise funds for Mrs. Lincoln's 2010 re-election) that Card Check will pass this year, only to be disavowed by a 1600 flack within hours.
• The February pressure by House members of the Blue Dog Coalition on Speaker Nancy Pelosi to punt the Card Check legislation to the Senate so that they would not be saddled with two votes that will hack off people back home, and Pelosi"s agreement to punt.

And now that we are in March, we have Mr. Obama's promise to pay back union special interests with a bill that will allow unions to publicly intimidate workers into agreeing to join a union so that the union’s can increase their take from union members which, surprise, ends up in the coffers of Democrat political campaigns.

UPDATE - And in the era of breaking news, my columnist friend in Arkansas, David Sanders, writes that Mrs. Lincoln may be shifting into the “Nay” column (which will bring plenty of attention to the good Senator from union folks).

Even though Lincoln hasn't officially signaled which way she intends to vote, she may be edging closer to voting against it.

The senator’s campaign staff has been busy making phone calls trying to round up support for her second re-election campaign in anticipation her March 14 fund-raiser with Vice President Joe Biden. At least two times when individuals who were called expressed apprehension about Lincoln’s indecisiveness on EFCA, they were told in response not to worry about that.

END UPDATE - Readers of this blog know that Mrs. Lincoln has been circumspect at best on whether she would vote for Card Check - and we have video proof:

I credit Mrs. Lincoln with her deft parry when asked if she would vote for Card Check today. After all, what better non-answer can you have about a piece of legislation that has no support of her own Democratic governor of her own right-to-work state than the fact that the bill "hasn't been marked-up" yet?

Too bad for Mrs. Lincoln and her staff is the fact that folks like me, and reporters back home, can look things up. Specifically:

• In the last Congress, Mrs. Lincoln voted for cloture on HR 800, the most recent version of the Card Check bill.
• In the Congress before that, Mrs. Lincoln co-sponsored S 842, yet another version of the Card Check bill.

Voters in Arkansas can look at history to see that Sen. Lincoln has, in the past, carried a torch for union special interests to the detriment of the economic interests of Arkansans. Of course, the fact that there was no chance that the previous president would sign such a bill if it ever passed likely made Sen. Lincoln&'s choice to kowtow to unions much more palatable to her political brain trust.

Sen. Lincoln's demonstrable history of supporting stripping secret ballot rights of American workers puts her in the precarious position of being hoisted upon her own petard. She can no longer play politics with this issue, now that we have a promise by Mr. Obama to make union intimidation the law of the land.

In a Senate that doesn't have a 60-vote Democrat majority, and will go first in moving Card Check to Mr. Obama's desk, what will Mrs. Lincoln do? Will she stand up for Arkansans, or be intimidated by union thugs and a president who lost her state by 20 points? We will be watching . . .

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