The Denver Post’s official editorial page “endorsement” of Democrat Michael Bennet for U.S. Senate was half-hearted at best. Replete with criticism of his actual performance since he was appointed to the seat in January 2009, The Post’s nod was based on the hope that he might be worthy of the position in the future. As endorsements go, that’s pretty left-handed.
Reminiscing about his smarts and independence in non-elected positions in the past, the editors declared that “that Michael Bennet has been mostly AWOL” as a senator. Acknowledging that Obama and the Democrats have “overreached” and “moved the country to the left,” they lamented that “Sen. Bennet, unfortunately, has helped push that agenda along.”
Channeling Jimmy Stewart in a “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” pose, Bennet took to the Senate floor in the middle of the Obama-care debate and blasted his fellow lawmakers, as The Post put it, “for their dirty dealing as they patched together a health care bill larded with special deals.” Then he hypocritically voted for it three days later. Notes The Post, “The current health care bill is law because of Bennet’s one vote. That vote, and his speech, epitomize his short Senate career: So much potential, yet not enough spine.”
Bennet’s behavior in tap dancing around the so-called Employee Free Choice Act is emblematic of his short Senate tenure. This bill is the crown jewel in big labor’s wish list. More accurately described as the Employee Forced Choice Act, it’s a makeover of the old card-check scheme whereby union organizers can sidestep a secret-ballot election by strong-arming workers in face-to-face encounters.
The card-check bill was introduced in 2007, passed the House but died in the Senate. It was reintroduced in 2009 after Obama’s election and the strengthening of the Democrats’ majority in the new Congress. With concerted business opposition in the midst of a recession, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid calculated that he didn’t have the 60 votes to pass it. In order to avoid putting swing-state Democrats in the Senate and blue dog Democrats in the House on the spot in a losing cause, Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi agreed to keep the bill bottled up in committee.
Michael Bennet is one of those vulnerable senators who’s been saved from a roll-call vote on card check. This enables him to wink at labor unions that are confident he’d vote for the bill if push came to shove while not offending business by publicly declaring for it. But voters have a right to know where he stands. In a July 2009 column, I asked Bennet to get off the pot and take a public stance. I’ve asked him numerous times since, to no avail.
In a recent debate with Ken Buck, his Republican opponent, Bennet pretended to take a position on the bill, saying, “I would not support the current language.” While much of the media concluded that his statement amounted to opposing EFCA, I think it’s typical Bennet weasel language.
He’s used this artful dodge before, claiming he doesn’t support the language and that he’d like to see a final version that balances the interests of all parties. That’s a cop-out. He doesn’t get to dictate the language in the bill. It was crafted by labor unions, his party’s most powerful special interest, and blessed by majority Democrats.
Until that imaginary perfect compromise comes along, senator, we’d like to know how you’d vote if this imperfect bill came to the floor exactly as it’s now written. Yes, no or abstain?
That question has been hovering over Bennet’s head for almost two years. Perhaps his political epitaph will read, “So much potential, so little spine and leadership.”
Mike Rosen’s radio show airs weekdays from 9 a.m. to noon on 850-KOA.
