Lanny Davis visited the set of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. to push for his "third way" corporate compromise on the Employee Free Choice Act. Costco, Starbucks and Whole Foods have teamed up and are calling themselves the Committee for a Level Playing Field. As Steve Benen notes in his article:
Lanny Davis, a former special counsel to President Clinton, is reportedly helping to push this compromise, and told the Post that he's received positive feedback from about 20 Senate offices. We don't know which 20, but not surprisingly, Sen. Mark Pryor of Arkansas, a right-leaning Democrat who may break with his party over EFCA, said the proposal "could result in a reasonable compromise."
From TPM some good news:
Backers of the EFCA "alternative" have enlisted Lanny Davis, the former Clinton White House adviser turned supporter of Joe Lieberman's 2006 re-election bid, to plead their case on the Hill. And it's not going well so far, to say the least -- senior Democrats are pushing back hard at the compromise offer with a series of talking points that blast the EFCA "alternative" as "written by CEOs, for CEOs."
TPMDC has obtained a copy of the complete memo on the business-friendly deal, which is available after the jump. The takeaway is clear: Senior Democrats aren't buying what Davis is helping Costco, Whole Foods, and Starbucks try to sell.
Down with Tyranny calls the proposal a Trojan horse.
Ah... the rub. While the Greeks hide in the high reeds, grumbling that they oppose leaving such a lovely, costly horse to the tenacious damn Trojans, the modern day Trojans-- or at least the labor unions (if not the Bayh Bloc weak-kneed Democrats) have already figured out the trick. Yesterday the AFL-CIO let the Chamber of Commerce type Dems know that they're not buy into any so-called "compromise" that still allows management to subvert the will of the majority and still allows them delay contract negotiations ad infinitum since without that first legally binding contract the union is still at their never-tender mercies.
Davis refers to himself as a "pro-labor liberal" Democrat in this segment. If this is "pro-labor" lord help us.
John Amato:
This deal is not a compromise and makes things much worse for workers even if right wing union haters are feigning anger at Big Business for coming forward with this plan. If Lanny Davis was really for the working class then he should not be trying to broker this deal. I wonder how much he's being paid to jump into this battle and speak for the Big Guy?
