Modern News

When an average citizen donates money to a politician it is usually because that citizen believes in the politician and wants to help him have the war chest to conduct a campaign. Unions like to pretend that they donate to politicians out of the goodness of their hearts, just like common citizens do. Everyone knows, though, that they are merely making an attempt to buy them. A union in Alabama has as much as admitted that they were trying to buy a politician, but when he didn’t dance to their tune, these union folks demanded their contributions back.

Al Henley, secretary-treasurer of the Alabama AFL-CIO, seems to be a mite miffed with Alabama Representative Parker Griffith. You’ll recall that Griffith was the one-time Democrat who jumped the sinking Donkey ship and became a Republican late last year.

Apparently while he was a Democrat the AFL-CIO had no problem giving him campaign money. Now that he’s a Republican, though, the union has taken sudden umbrage at Griffith’s voting record. “Parker Griffith, we feel you have swindled us,” Henley said at a recent rally in Hunstville, Alabama.

Henley criticized Griffith for voting “no” on the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009, the stimulus bill and health care reform.

Of course, there is one interesting fact, here. All these votes were made before December of 2009. It is now February of 2010. What happened between December of 2009 and today? Griffith became a Republican. These union folks weren’t complaining about giving Griffith money before he switched parties, were they?

Still, it is pretty obvious that these unions feel that if they’ve given campaign money, then they should be able to get 100% compliance with their orders to that politician. Who wouldn’t see this as an assumption of buying that politician?