Atrios linked to an article in the Wall Street Journal about Rahm Emanuel speaking to a number of business leaders, challenging them to support universal health care. That's great as far as it goes, but this nugget caught my attention:
He was asked his views on the push by labor unions to allow workplaces to be organized with the signing of cards attesting to union support rather than a secret ballot. Mr. Emanuel declined to say whether the White House would support the legislation, but he said the unions are addressing the concerns of a middle class that has seen U.S. median income slide over the past eight years, while health care, energy and education costs have soared.
Emanuel Sets a Challenge.
WTF? All during the campaign, Obama was loud and clear that he supported the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), saying that it would be one of his top priorities once in office. Now his CoS can't bring himself to state that Obama still supports the legislation?
I understand that Rahm was speaking to an audience that is...unfriendly (to put it mildy) to EFCA, so perhaps you think "he was being diplomatic in his choice of language." Just stop right there with that line of argument. To believe that, you have to accept that 1) Rahm is a diplomatic guy who couches what he thinks in careful studied language, and 2) business leaders are a bunch of suckers who actually fall for vague statements likes this, even in light of Obama's past statements in support of EFCA.
Seriously, neither of those statements are valid, so the "fig leaf" theory - that he didn't want to undermine his effort to drum up support for universal health care - doesn't hold up well.
The more reasonable interpretation is to take Rahm's statement at face value. And that's a scary thought. Because if there's even a chance that Obama will turn his back on EFCA, we are in big trouble.
I really hope that this was just a fig leaf, but we can't take anything for granted. If it was a fig leaf, then no worries. But if there is something more going on, then we should consider ourselves warned.