I'm a progressive Democrat here in Southeast Michigan. However, I've never been particularly pro-union. That doesn't mean I'm anti union, just that I'm fairly neutral on the issue. Now, normally that wouldn't be a big deal, but when you're a Democrat in Southeast Michigan, NOT being massively pro-union is equivalent to being a Republican.
I mention this only because the mayor of Lansing, Michigan, Virg Bernero, just gave a BLISTERING attack on some FOX News jagoff who was attacking the UAW and demanding even more concessions. You really have to watch the whole thing for the full impact.
Again, I'm not a huge union fan as a rule, but I admit that Mayor Bernero gave one hell of a powerful argument defending the UAW in particular. Video below the fold.
(h/t to Bruce Fealk at Blogging for Michigan for the heads up)
UPDATE: Holy moly! Wow, top of the rec list, over 300 500 600 700 comments, beyond flattered, etc etc (all the cliche stuff I'm supposed to say).
Here's some background info and contact info about Mayor Bernero, for those who wish to know more about him and/or to personally thank him for telling it like it is to the FOX bozos:
Virg Bernero Wikipedia Entry:
Virgil Bernero (born March 31, 1964 in Pontiac, Michigan) is the current mayor of Lansing, Michigan, elected on November 8, 2005. He is a member of the Democratic Party. Prior to serving as mayor, Bernero served as a legislative aide, an Ingham County Commissioner and as a legislator in the Michigan House of Representatives and the Michigan Senate.
...
Bernero began his involvement in government in 1986, running unsuccessfully for county commissioner in Oakland County. In 1987, he became a legislative analyst to House Speakers Gary Owen and Lewis Dodak in the Michigan House of Representatives. In 1991, he was elected an Ingham County commissioner, where he represented south Lansing for eight years. He then served, again, a legislative aide in the Michigan State Senate for Senator James Berryman, and later in various advocacy roles. Bernero ran for and won a seat in the Michigan House of Representatives in 2000, serving one term before being elected to the Michigan State Senate in 2002. After serving one year in that role, he ran for mayor of Lansing against incumbent mayor Tony Benavides in 2003, who was finishing out mayor David Hollister's term, who had resigned to serve in Gov. Jennifer Granholm's administration. Bernero lost by only 258 votes. Returning to the state Senate, he then launched another campaign for Lansing mayor two years later in 2005, this time defeating Benavides, winning 62% of the vote.
Mayor Bernero's Official Contact Info:
Mayor Virg Bernero
9th Floor City Hall
124 W. Michigan , MI 48933
517.483.4141
517.483.6066 fax
mayor@ci.lansing.mi.us
Oh, and here's his Facebook page if you want to become a supporter!
As long as I'm up here, I've also been doing an occasional diary update on PolitiFact's "OBAMETER" series which keeps track of how Obama's doing on the 510 campaign promises that he apparently made throughout the primary and general campaign season. Please be on the lookout for these diaries (about one per week) and rec 'em up if you don't mind--it's very cool to watch as he checks off items on his Ultimate To-Do List!
UPDATE #2: A lot of people in the comments have been going a bit overboard with the "Bernero-for-(fill in the higher office)!" stuff. Some are touting him for U.S. Congress against the repugnant Mike Rogers (R MI-08); others are even suggesting he run for Michigan Governor. Some have even (jokingly?) clamored for even higher aspirations.
I just wanted to note that while he may be a great choice for either of these, neither I nor most of you know enough about him to get too excited at the prospect. I have no idea whether he's doing a good or bad job as Lansing Mayor, and the fact that he originally ran for Mayor after only one year in the state Senate--which was in turn after only 2 years as a state Representative--is mildly eyebrow-raising (nothing terrible, just noteworthy). He may be awesome, he may suck; I have no idea. All I know is that in this particular interview, he kicked FOX News' teeth into their throats, which is a Good Thing® no matter what other assets or liabilities the guy has.
I'd suggest reading up on the guy's record and seeing what Michigan Kossacks from Lansing think about him before jumping on the Bernero-for-President bandwagon :)
Update x3: OK, due to popular request (and my having time to add it), here's a crude transcript which I've attempted to clean up a bit (this is the best they have available so far):
FOX JAGOFF: " It's deadline day for General Motors and Chrysler, and in just a few hours from now the auto makers will be given a progress report on the restructuring. Plus the latest in on just how they plan to pay back billions of dollars in government loans that your money and we just weren't for ??? Jim Angle that.
GMC EO Rick Wagoner is going to be speaking later this afternoon. Virg Bernero, the Mayor of Lansing, Michigan, is joining us now via a Skype web cam.
OK, Mr. Mayor thanks for being with us. We won’t know the details for a few more hours but we know this much: The broad plan GM has presented, for example, is going to be cutting back on its workforce, shuttering factories, reducing its line of the brands to...from 28 to 4 or 8, I think. What's your reaction to the plan?”
BERNERO: “Well first I guess in all honesty I I was a little offended by your question, you know...is the UAW giving up enough. Has the working man given up enough? You know my question is, has Wall Street given up enough for the billions that they have taken?
I gotta tell you I am so sick and tired of the double standard. One standard for Washington and Wall Street and another standard for working people in this country. It's always, it always comes down to, ‘hey, to be more competitive we gotta take it out of the hide of the working person’...cut their pay cut their benefits. How much is enough?
Let me ask you, have the ??? been caught on Wall Street? What does Wall Street given up? What is Washington doing...have they given on their own their workers and thrown them out...under the bus? But ??? it should bring it ??? packaged with President Obama. The auto industry will step up. And we'll take our lumps. But I guess there’s no reciprocity in this country."
FOX JAGOFF: "Okay, Mr. Bernero, that wasn't my question, and I'm sorry that you were offended by it, but now that you bring it up, here's today's editorial in the New York Post: ‘The overall per worker burden for the Big Three is upwards of seventy dollars per hour compared to 27 dollars an hour. Burned by the average private sector worker in the upper midwestern states as a result, General Motors loses $2000 dollars per car sold. That is unsustainable.’
Wouldn't you agree that UAW workers need to swallow some pay cuts...a substantial one??"
BERNERO: "Greg I don't know about you, but I have good health benefits here in the city of Lansing; my guess is that FOX provides you with some good health benefits. So now General Motors and the other members of the Big Three are to be penalized for providing perks, for doing social good and stepping up to deploy and provide health benefits and some ??? for their workers? Give me a break! You know what? Wall Street got billions of dollars, no strings attached, they haven't suffered one iota! And all we can talk about is how much more we can get out of the working person?
I'm telling you Americans are sick and tired of this across this country. The double standard between working people I know and Wall Street. Doesn’t understand working people and industries that actually produce something that is what -- generally -- you -- and have to be paid back -- must create a disconnect and -- this -- could just be -- because I ask you about I -- brought to -- talking about health -- gross domestic product that you have to produce something what are we going to produce in this country if we allow the auto industry -- by the wayside like every other industry that we shipped overseas."
FOX JAGOFF: "Can I get a question in here? I ask you about a pay cut for workers, not health care, but now that you brought up health care, let me put it this way. $47 Billion in future cost to UAW workers for health care for life. You're wrong—I don't get health care for life here. Isn't that part of the problem? They need to give up that which no other worker gets, health care for life?"
BERNERO: "The UAW did make concessions and ??? of the make more concessions, but if you think you're gonna make me feel guilty about the fact that I had health benefits as a kid and I was able to get straight teeth because my dad retired from GM, and if you think my 84 year old boxer father and other retirees like him, and undreds of thousands across this country, you think they should feel guilty for the benefits they receive, I disagree with you!
General Motors and the Big Three provided a wonderful standard of living, they helped create the middle class in this country which is now under attack. Because of the outsourcing that is taken place, and Wall Street in Washington just don't get it; this unholy alliance is not working for the average American, and since 2000, once it's just trying to join the WTT all we block something like two point three million jobs. Directly to China because of the unfair trade.
This is what Americans are competing with and I'm sorry; it’s an unlevel playing field, and no wonder we can't win and -- setting up and you're contributing to is a race took about. So that we think that every American is the standard now that we should be paid Americans like a Third World nation? It’s a race to the bottom, I'm sorry, it's wrong. We're setting up a race that the Americans cannot win; they shouldn't have to compete on that basis we need -- trade not. Free trade we are suffering from the free trade policies that both Democrats and Republicans ever thought...”
FOX JAGOFF: “Hey, we’re a television show, this isn’t a campaign speech, you’re not the Eveready battery! ??? that content, we're just having that discussion here. Mayor Bernero of Lansing, Michigan, thank you."
Update x4: Several people in the comments have expressed either confusion, curiosity or flat-out disdain for my "neutral on unions" statement. My response to this is simple: The only reason I made such a point of making my stance (or lack of one) on unions so clear is to underscore the point that Bernero's performance was all the more impressive given that I'm lukewarm about union issues. I am not going to defend myself on this subject; my reasons are my own. If you have a problem with that, so be it.
Update x5: Glenn Greenwald at Salon just picked up the story--and even gave a h/t to me, yay! I'm vaguely famous for...um...linking to a YouTube video. Yee-hah!