June 30 - It's not a Hat Trick

In a victory for the right, two bills suffered serious setbacks this week. Most prominently, the immigration bill failed to pass a vote to vote. That it failed is more a victory for the citizens of the U.S. than just for the right. It appeared that this issue was a class struggle, business versus individual fight more than a left versus right fight. Grassroots momentum really took it's toll on our legislators. The Blogosphere wielded a big stick on this one, it seems. The phones we ringing off the hook in the offices of the Senate.

A second bill, that to impose the fairness doctrine on radio stations, was voted on and defeated in the house by a large margin. This bill was a clear victory for the right and definitely was a conservative versus liberal issue. Liberal talk radio has had trouble finding an audience. Conservative talk radio, on the other hand, enjoys great commercial success. This irks the left and, now that they have the house and senate, they proposed this bill as a way to knock the legs off Rush's chair.

A third, less well known bill to eliminate the secret ballot in Union organizing votes gained support. Today when a shop is considering voting to unionize or not, each employee has the privilege of casting a secret ballot. Originally unions fought for this exact condition so as to prevent violent coercion by employers. A prime example of irony, unions today are fighting to have the ballot made public, with a union organizer right there when the employee makes his or her decision. No chance for coercion there, right? Well, this week, in the Senate, the Employee Free Choice Act (what a crock) received a slim 51-48 margin of support keeping it alive for a while longer (it takes 60 votes to end debate and proceed to an up or down vote.)

So no hat trick this week. Hopefully more rational heads will prevail and the Employee Free Choice act will go down next time around.