In Georgia, Rick Santorum is appealing to all conservatives to get behind him against Mitt Romney and the establishment, but Newt Gingrich is still hanging on and, being from Georgia, he is hoping to win his home state. He’s taking a page out of Mitt Romney’s playbook by opting to go negative against Santorum, including paying for a robocall that mischaracterizes Rick Santorum in the worst way, claiming he is a “pal” of the AFL-CIO and “union bosses.”
Transcript of the robocall:
Female narrator: “On the campaign trail, Rick Santorum talks a good game about his blue-collar roots, and about being for the average family.
“But here’s the record Rick Santorum doesn’t want you to know about: As a senator from Pennsylvania, Santorum cozied up to the labor union bosses, and voted for the AFL-CIO, and against a national right-to-work bill that would have let workers opt out of paying union dues – union dues that hurt families and small businesses.
“Rick Santorum: Friend of working families, or the union bosses’ pal? You decide. Paid for and authorized by Newt 2012.”
It’s true that Rick Santorum voted against the national right to work legislation as a Senator, but this was in keeping with the fact that Pennsylvania was not a right to work state and the GOP platform which says that “right to work” is a state, not a federal, issue.
We affirm both the right of individuals to voluntarily participate in labor organizations and bargain collectively and the right of states to enact Right-to-Work laws. But the nation’s labor laws, to a large extent formed out of conflicts several generations ago, should be modernized to make it easier for employers and employees to plan, execute, and profit together.
Considering that Rick Santorum’s vote here is in keeping with the Republican platform, I fail to see how it can be claimed that his vote means he is a friend of the AFL-CIO. Santorum has said that he would not vote against his own state as a U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania, a position in line with the platform that it is a state issue, but that as president he will work for a national right to work law. In that event, he would not be bound to one state but to the good of the country.
Rick Santorum has been no friend to the AFL-CIO.
“My AFL-CIO voting record in the years I was in Congress was 13 percent,” [Santorum] said. “That’s not too liberal on labor issues. … How 13 percent is liberal is bizarre.”
Indeed. Also, consider that Richard Trumka, the president of the AFL-CIO, has publicly thanked the Pennsylvania Democratic Party for Rick Santorum’s loss in that state.
No one should ever win an election based on lies. If Newt wants to win Georgia, he needs to try convincing Georgians to support his moon colony idea or something. Just stop lying about my candidate.
Defeat the Establishment. Vote for Rick Santorum.
