Do-Nothing Durbin

After spending months spinning their wheels on investigating anything that moves at the White House, the Do-Nothing Democrats cap off their miniscule legislative accomplishments by staging a slumber party on the Senate floor to protest the Iraq War, complete with rollaways. Kind of a geriatric version of flower children.

But the Democrats have stirred themselves to take a decisive whack at the only budget they ever want to cut (aside from funds for our troops in the field). John Fund, WSJ:

The new Democratic Congress has finally found a government agency whose budget It wants to cut: an obscure Labor Department office that monitors the compliance of unions with federal law.

In the past six years, the Office of Labor Management Standards, or OLMS, has helped secure the convictions of 775 corrupt union officials and court-ordered restitution to union members of over $70 million in dues. The House is set to vote Thursday on a proposal to chop 20% from the OLMS budget. Every other Labor Department enforcement agency is due for a budget increase, and overall the Congress has added $935 million to the Bush administration's budget request for Labor. The only office the Democrats want to cut back is the one engaged in union oversight.

Although Congress has long insisted on copious reporting by corporations, including the burdens of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, lawmakers have been relatively nonchalant about union reporting. Unlike the quarterly filings of corporations, unions must only file once a year with the Labor Department using a free software program. They don't have to get an independent certified audit, are only rarely audited by the government, and don't have to follow standard accounting methods.

Apparently the working man's misspent and embezzled dues don't rate with our illustrious Sen. and Dem "leader" Dick Durbin, a top recipient of labor bosses' largesse, running over $800,000, $56.5k since January alone (Figures are from www.politicalmoneyline.com). Durbin has a union bosses' label firmly stuck on his forehead, voting most recently, though unsuccessfully, to take away the right of union members to a secret ballot. His Dem counterparts in the House today are poised to make the cut, depriving the rank and file of needed transparency:

Far from oppressing unions with burdensome reporting requirements, the Office of Labor Management Standards is doing what governments often do best: provide information and punish people who abuse the public trust. It has posted an impressive array of data on union governance at its Web site, unionreports.gov, where any dues-paying member can access it.

This union oversight office is one of the legacies of JFK. Durbin and the Do-Nothing Democrats don't stand for much of anything any more.

UPDATE: Zogby poll. Two thirds say the country is going in the wrong direction (but are happy about their personal finances and safety):

An even bigger majority, 83 percent, say the Democratic-controlled Congress is doing only a fair or poor job -- the worst mark for Congress in a Zogby poll.

UPDATE: Novak on more Dem kowtowing to Big Labor:

Ignoring pleas from outraged South American governments, Democratic leadership of the House this week was adamant about Congress going into its August recess without taking action on free trade agreements with Peru and Panama as promised. Instead, two senior Democratic House members appear determined to travel to those two rare Latin American friends of the United States, to hector them into passing domestic legislation as a prerequisite for approving already negotiated bilateral trade pacts.

Why did House Speaker Nancy Pelosi renege on her commitment? She dances to the tune of AFL-CIO President John Sweeney, who preaches protectionism. Hostility toward not only the Peru and Panama pacts but also a vital agreement with Colombia can be traced to influence on U.S. unions by South America's leftist labor leaders, originating in Hugo Chavez's Venezuela.

UPDATE: NRSC highlights a quote from the post and other Dem blunders.

Related posts: Foul-Mouthed Teachers & Unions, Big Brother Durbin