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While discussing the protests in Wisconsin today with The United Steelworkers Director Michael Bolton and Wisconsin State Senator Glenn Grothman, Chris Matthews touts former Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell as a good pro-labor Democrat. Really? News to me Tweety. He just got hired by an union busting law firm, Ballard, Spahr, Ingersoll, and Rand.

Union busting, alive and well in Pennsylvania :

We also learned from one of our brothers at the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way that Pennsylvania's outgoing governor, Democrat Ed Rendell, is joining a union-busting law firm. Here's the message:

He will be returning to the law firm of Ballard, Spahr, Ingersoll, and Rand. This is the firm that SEPTA gives a huge majority of their outside counsel to.

Philadelphia, with a long, proud history of being a "union town" (AFSCME was founded here) has dealt with these people for many years. When municipal workers and transportation workers try to advance their cause, this firm is the first to be called in to stick it to the unions.

Former DNC Chair Ed Rendell Returns to Management Law Firm:

Ballard Spahr has announced that former Pennsylvania Governor Edward G. Rendell is returning as a member of the firm in its Philadelphia office. Governor Rendell is a former Mayor of Philadelphia, City District Attorney and Chair of the Democratic National Committee.

In one of his last acts as governor, Rendell vetoed a bill that enjoyed overwhelming bipartisan support and would have made it easier for fire fighters who develop cancer to collect workers' compensation benefits.

Pennsylvania fire fighters struggled for nearly 20 years to win passage of cancer presumption legislation, and this year gained political support in the state legislature. The measure, HB 1231, had passed the Pennsylvania House by a vote of 195-1, and carried a GOP-controlled Senate with only four dissenting votes. Rendell was the only lawmaker left standing in the way of this important measure for Pennsylvania fire fighters. The outgoing governor waited until the very end of the state’s legislative calendar to kill the bill with his veto pen, leaving fire fighters with almost no opportunity to convince legislators to override the veto.

IAFF General President Harold Schaitberger sent a letter to the Democratic National Committee and National Governors Association expressing disappointment and anger at Governor Ed Rendell for vetoing the measure.

"Rendell’s post political career comes as no surprise," says Schaitberger. "For eight years, as governor of the Commonwealth, he shamelessly shilled for the anti-labor law firm, Ballard Spahr. Now, he's getting paid for his efforts.”

And here's the press release from Ballard Spahr: Governor Edward G. Rendell Rejoins Ballard Spahr

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While rehashing Bill O'Reilly's Super Bowl interview with President Obama, Joe Scarborough and his buddy Mark Halperin decided go into full-blown PUMA mode with the "Obama was never vetted during the primaries and everyone was picking on poor Hillary" game on Morning Joe this Monday.

Scarborough seems to have forgotten about those twenty some debates that they had during the Democratic primary race. They also both apparently forgot that the interview with O'Reilly before the Super Bowl this weekend was not the first one Obama had given him. He previously sat down for an even more hostile interview with Bill-O in September of 2008 when he was candidate Obama.

HALPERIN: One of the things the president said in that interview was by the time you get to be president you’ve had tough coverage and he’s used to it. Well the fact is unlike most people who get elected president, he didn’t have tough coverage and so this is on the job training for him and he’s handling it pretty well.

SCARCBOROUGH: Are you saying Obama didn’t get tough coverage?

HALPERIN: Not as a Senator or a presidential candidate.

SCARCBOROUGH: Oh, well, I mean you, if you call, I mean reporters coming up to him and feeding him grapes before asking him some questions, like A-Rod…

BREZEZINSKI: You know that is revisionist thinking.

SCARBOROUGH: That's not revisionist thinking! He was given a free pass!

Continue reading »

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Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan believes that the US should "follow the law" and let the Bush tax cuts lapse. He disagreed Sunday with Republicans who say that tax cuts pay for themselves.

"I am very much in favor of tax cuts but not with borrowed money," Greenspan said during an appearance on NBC.

"The problem that we've gotten into in recent years is that spending programs with borrowed money, tax cuts with borrowed money, and at the end of the day that proves disastrous and my view is I don't think we can play subtle policy here," said Greenspan.

"You don't agree with Republican leaders who say tax cuts pay for themselves?" asked NBC's David Gregory.

"They do not," Greenspan replied firmly.

From Raw Story -- Dem governor: Fox News outdid tea partiers in ‘marshalling anger’:

Pennsylvania's Democratic governor, Ed Rendell, told the hosts of Fox & Friends Monday that they "deserve credit" for the success of the tea party movement, and that the movement could well dissipate if the economy improves.

"You guys deserve more credit for marshaling that anger than the tea partiers," Rendell told hosts Gretchen Carlson, Steve Doocy and Brian Kilmeade, adding that he was "being serious" in making the claim and that "it's your right to do so."

In a long monologue during which the news hosts sometimes had trouble getting a word in edgewise, Rendell said that the tea party movement paled in size when compared to the anti-war movement during the Bush era, and that the tea parties "have been successful because the mainstream media, the media all over the country, has given them too much credit. I think they're sort of following the anger, rather than creating the movement." Read on...

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Ed Rendell points out that the media has been over-hyping these Tea Parties given the very small number of people that have been attending their rallies.

Rendell: I think David the first thing we have to define is what's the tea party itself. If you say it's the anger that people feel about the economy, etc. that's giving the tea party too much credit. We had two recent tea party demonstrations in Washington. One a week before the health care vote drew about 1000 people, the tax day rally by the organizers own estimate was 1500 people.

If I organized a rally for stronger laws to protect puppies, I would get 100,000 people to Washington, so let's... I think the media has blown the tea parties themselves out of proportion, that's number one.

That didn't sit too well with Marsha Blackburn. Sorry dear but he's right. Those numbers are small and the press has been over-hyping the astroturf movement for obvious reasons, like helping the Republican Party regain power. As we've already pointed out here there were huge anti-war protests that the media all but ignored. Now we get these tiny crowds showing up in D.C. and the media is hyping them with wall to wall coverage. It's pitiful.

John Amato: The Tea Party movement is an extension of the conservative movement. Every poll we've seen basically pegs them as sore losers.

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Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour must not be watching Fox News because he thinks coverage of health care reform has been largely favorable. Barbour says the media has gushed over Democrats' ideas to improve health care in the US.

"Since this thing passed last weekend, we've been seeing the longest wet kiss in political history, given the Obama administration by the liberal media elite and every day that goes by, it gets sloppier," Barbour told ABC's Jake Tapper Sunday.

Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell just laughed at the notion. "I don't know what channels Haley watches but that's a lousy wet kiss, boy, because it's getting pounded in the media." said Rendell.

Barbour was billed as a "leading voice" on health care by ABC News but his state is ranked is dead last in health.

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Many Republican politicians have railed against the stimulus while praising or taking credit for stimulus money provided to their districts. One prominent Republican governor is calling out his colleagues' hypocrisy.

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger was proud to accept stimulus dollars for his state praised the program for creating or saving over 150,000 jobs. "I have been the first governor of the Republican governors to come out and to support the stimulus money because I say to myself, this is terrific," Schwarzenegger told ABC's Terry Moran Sunday.

In contrast to many Republicans, the California governor believes the stimulus has created public and private sector jobs. "Anyone that says that it hasn't created the jobs, they should talk to the 150,000 people that have been getting jobs in California," he said.

Schwarzenegger lashed out at those GOP politicians who voted against the bill then took credit for benefits provided to their states. "Well, you know, to me I find it interesting that you have a lot of the Republicans running around and pushing back on the stimulus money and saying this doesn't create any new jobs, and then they go out and they do the photo ops and they are posing with the big check and they say, 'Isn't this great?'" said Schwarzenegger.

Rachel Maddow talks to Gov. Ed Rendell about what the Democrats should do now that they've lost their 60 seats in the Senate. I'm no fan of Rendell, but I agree with him here. I'd like to see them just get some of the actual good parts of the health care bill passed and as Ed said, if the Republicans are against those things, make them filibuster. He forgot to mention the Democrats who would likely join them though. These ConservaDems mucking up the works really need to go. Unfortunately we're probably going to see them replaced with actual Republicans instead of corporatists who pretend to be Democrats.

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Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell pulled no punches last night on The Ed Show in an enthusiastic pitch job for the new "Democrat" Arlen Specter. Rendell said in a primary challenge Congressman Joe Sestak would "get killed" because the party machinery and even the president are now squarely behind Specter, and that Specter is so well-known in the state while Sestak is not.

"I'm a great admirer of Joe Sestak and worked hard to get him elected and re-elected," Rendell said. "And I'm going to work hard to get him re-elected when he runs for Congress next year. Not for the Senate. Joe should not run for the Senate in the Democratic primary. He would get killed."

And if Sestak does run?

"We will lose a terrific Congressman," Rendell said. "Joe Sestak runs against Arlen Specter, he is out of the Congress after just two short terms. We will lose a terrific Congressman and when he loses to Arlen, he fades into political obscurity."

Rendell was the prime instigator in getting Specter to switch to the Democratic Party, and their history goes way back. Rendell's first job was in the DA's office in Philadelphia under Arlen Specter in the late 60's. (Rendell himself would later be elected District Attorney of Philadelphia in 1977.)

And much of what Rendell is saying is true. Specter "the Democrat" is getting broad-based democratic institutional support, even by Obama himself, where he appeared at a Beverley Hills fundraiser, as well as Joe Biden and Harry Reid. That part isn't surprising.

What is unclear though at this point is how much rank-and-file Democrats will be cheering for this career opportunist should a serious primary attempt be made by a real Democrat in Joe Sestak.