More friends of the First Perjurer:
October 7, 1998
Friends of Bill
At some point, an Administration has to be judged in part by
the friends it keeps. There have been few tighter alliances in politics recently
than that between President Clinton and the Teamsters, the nation's largest
private-sector union.
The grim side of this relationship was on display again last Friday in
Philadelphia during the President's 97th fund-raising outing of the year. The
Philadelphia Daily News reported "a group of beefy Teamsters kicked and
punched some anti-Clinton protesters." One protester suffered two swollen
black and blue eyes, bruises and cuts. He was later released from a local
hospital.
The altercation, which was broadcast on local
television, occurred after union members wearing
"Teamsters for Clinton" T-shirts argued with about
75 people demonstrating against Mr. Clinton. Don
Adams said he was attacked by six to eight
Teamsters, who also injured his sister after she tried
to help him. He says that John Morris, president of
the Pennsylvania Conference of Teamsters, began
the violence by placing his union cap on Mr.
Adams's head, a tactic known as "marking" a
nonunion member for violence.
Mr. Morris denies that; he said, "I put my hat in his
face, on his head, to stop him from punching two women." Mr. Adams says
he did not threaten the Teamster women, both of whom told the
Conservative News Service that they hadn't filed charges and hadn't
required hospitalization. Mr. Morris says they may file charges later this
week.
When it comes to violence, Mr. Adams has no record. The same cannot be
said for Mr. Morris's Local 115, of which he is the secretary-treasurer. In
1995, it was found in civil contempt of a 1986 court injunction barring it
from using violence on picket lines. The U.S. Third Circuit Court of
Appeals acted at the request of the National Labor Relations Board, which
noted the local had a recent record of violent strike-related conduct. At the
time, Mr. Morris accused the NLRB of trying "to break unions by taking
away their power."
The Teamsters certainly have protected their power during the Clinton
years. At a House hearing yesterday chaired by Rep. Pete Hoekstra,
compelling evidence was presented that former deputy White House Chief
of Staff Harold Ickes and former Trade Representative Mickey Kantor put
pressure on Diamond Walnut Growers Inc. to settle a Teamster strike. At
the same time, Teamster officials were pouring millions in campaign funds
into Democratic coffers. Democratic National Committee officials later
conspired unsuccessfully to funnel money into Teamster President Ron
Carey's re-election campaign.
Since then, Mr. Carey has been purged from the union by a federal
oversight board and his fraudulent 1996 re-election invalidated. But
foot-dragging by the Justice Department will have allowed the Teamsters
headquarters to be run by Carey holdovers through this November's critical
election. Mr. Morris was Mr. Carey's candidate for regional vice president
in 1996, and has been a fanatical supporter of the Clinton White House.
Last Friday, before Mr. Clinton's fund-raiser, he told Teamsters that as part
of his next negotiations he would demand that workers get a day off for
Hillary Clinton's birthday.
This tangled friendship goes on and on. The federal indictment of William
Hamilton, Mr. Carey's chief political deputy, has also implicated
Clinton-Gore finance director Terry McAuliffe in an unsuccessful
conspiracy to funnel money into the Carey campaign in exchange for
Teamster help in securing $1 million for the Democratic Party. Mr.
McAuliffe is now a top fund-raiser for President Clinton's legal defense
fund, offering assurances that he could raise the money to pay a possible $1
million settlement to Paula Jones.
If Attorney General Reno had appointed an independent counsel to look at
the 1996 election abuses, we might all be able to get a better sense of what
exactly is the nature of Mr. Clinton's association with the Teamsters Union.
For now, the Teamsters themselves are showing their loyalties on the streets
of Philadelphia.
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