Card Check Passed in Lame Duck Session?

Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) says he may be able to pass the Card Check bill during the Lame Duck session.

Tom Harkin

Here's a Senator unashamed to admit he is "maneuvering" for shameful legislation:

"To those who think it's dead, I say think again," Harkin said on the liberal Bill Press radio show. 

"We're still trying to maneuver," the Iowa Democrat added, explaining that if Democrats can't move the bill in its entirety, they might try to pass key parts of the union-organizing legislation individually.

The Iowa senator also raised the prospect on Thursday or trying to pass parts of the card-check bill during a lame-duck session of Congress at the end of the year.

"A lot of things can happen in a lame-duck session, too," he said in reference to EFCA. 

A "lame-duck" session refers to the time Congress is in session after an election, during which members who might have retired or lost reelection still serve for roughly two months. Contentious legislation like EFCA is rarely moved during such a session, though the logic behind trying to move the labor bill during a lame-duck Congress is that lawmakers who might have opposed it for political purposes might be more inclined to support it.

Card Check is a way for Unions to deny a private ballot to Union voters. In other words, Union leaders will know exactly how you vote in Union matters. Card Check removes the "federally supervised" private ballot privilege. Read more about Card Check here, and if you come up with a democratic reason for stealing an employee's right to a private vote, let me know.

The real explanation for a "lame duck" vote is this: the politician is not coming back to Congress and so abandons all ethics, integrity and concern for their own constituency and votes opposite to how they would have voted had they been returning to Capitol Hill. In other words, they sell out. Nice.

Is Card Check a Go, or No?

Senator Harry Reid's efforts to get card check, known as the Employee Free Choice Act, pushed through for a vote before anyone knows what he is doing, has mixed reporting. Will he try it? Will he not? CongressDaily on July 29th says it's over for now. Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) is the lead on the legislation says "we've got a health care bill," and "we're lacking two senators that we need right now [for passing card check]. Those two senators could be Ted Kennedy and Robert Byrd. Aides involved say there are "no plans to talk again before the August recess." But there is this report from Roll Call dated July 28th, and the question is, who do we believe?

Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is sketching a process for railroading the bill through the floor as quickly as possible to prevent Republicans from rallying a major campaign against it, senior Democratic aides said. As Harkin tries to build a consensus Democratic bill, Reid has been thinking through a strategy to pass it that would require not only the support of all 60 Democrats in the Senate, but also the physical presence of ailing Sens. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) for floor votes, since Republicans are likely to filibuster the legislation. This is not the kind of thing where we could have a long, drawn-out rollout. We’d have to say, ‘Here’s the deal,’ and then get to the floor and get it passed before anyone can mobilize against it,” one leadership aide said.

We cannot believe Harry Reid. The spotlight is off of card check, so we need to ramp-up vigilence. It is probably off-the-table for now, but maybe not. A reminder of what card check, known as the Employee Free Choice Act [EFCA] will do:

In place of a traditional one-man/one-vote secret ballot, the EFCA would impose a regime of union-boss thuggery known as “card-check,” wherein labor organizers (who may also be the employees’ supervisors) pressure workers to sign off on a union-organizing petition, a much easier way to reach a serviceable majority.

Others talking about the card check vote: Crash of ObamaCare means no Card Check this year - HotAir To amuse you, just as Congress wants no part of the government health care that Obama wants for you and me, Congress also wants their votes decided by secret ballot. Secret ballot not common in Congress. See the details at Hot Air: Why not use Card Check? Andre Cushing (R), a Maine Legislator discusses an editorial in the Bangor paper that leaves the impression that a card check "compromise" is underway. Cushing is a small business owner and Realtor. He says card check is bad for business.