WTF did Teamsters endorse Reagan?

[chiggerbit]

I'm curious. I thought, at the time, it was fairly obvious that he was anti-union. PATCO's "demise" seems to bear that out. So what was going on? Thoughts?

[StarmanSkye]

Hmmm... Good question; I kinda thought it HAD to be linked to corruption, being as how this was a good working relationship between the leadership of the GOP and Teamsters (no paragons of virtue, fer shure);

But I had to look it up for the details;
Seems, in exchange for pardoning Hoffa in '71, the Teamsters agreed to support Nixon's presidential bid -- which set-up a solid quid-pro-quo setup all thru Reagan's and even Bush's reign, with some really slimy sleaze -- like the Teamster's PR guru falsifying a membership mail poll to favor Reagan, setting the tone for the GOP's bogus Blue Collar Campaign, ie. Democrats for Reagan, and nationwide distribution of in-house 'business' spam-articles lauding Reagan as great for the working man ...

In return for millions of dollars of campaign dollars and Teamster loyalty, the Reagan admin. pointedly quashed investigations into Teamster corruption -- until a young-buck Attorney General following the standard career-path to distinction and political fame (Guilianni) started collecting corrupt Teamster official scalps.

Of course, Reagan sounded the death-knell for American Unions. He had NOTHING to offer the rank-and-file, esp. among the Teamsters, except their scamming by the big chiefs. The PATCO debacle where Reagan threw Air Traffic Control union leaders in jail totally wrecked union solidarity. So the GOP's ploy by feigning solidarity with the working class while protecting Teamster racketeers, ended-up pitting workers against workers -- the only way the elite Ruling Class minority can manage to seize and hold onto power is by divide-and-rule scams.

Starman
*******

http://www.nathannewman.org/other/teamstersGOP.html
(article circa 1997)

... for two decades, the Republicans supported the corrupt,
mob-backed leadership of the Teamsters union and protected them from
serious government investigation. In exchange, the Teamsters were the only major union that supported Republicans for the Presidency and would donate millions to the Republican party.

It is worth remembering that is was Robert Kennedy back in the 1950s who led the Congressional investigations into Teamster corruption,
investigations that led to the AFL-CIO expelling the Teamsters from the
labor federation. It was under Democrats in the 1960s that Jimmy Hoffa
Sr. (the father of the man Carey defeated last year for leadership of the
Teamsters) was indicted and imprisoned for fraud and looting the pensions
of his unions' retirees.

And then Richard Nixon pardoned Jimmy Hoffa in 1971 in exchange for the
Teamsters endorsing Nixon for President in 1972. Hoffa would not survive
the internal mob crossfire in the union, but the bond between the corrupt
Teamster leadership and the Republican Party would become only stronger.

In the late 70s, the corrupt Teamster leadership began a massive public
relations and political donation campaign to whitewash their image. Part
of this campaign involved hiring F. C. Duke Zeller, a Virginian Republican
operator who had been an unsuccessful Republican nominee for state
government and had turned to PR as a career. Hired by the Teamsters, he
detailed over a decade of the Teamster-Republican Party dealings in his
recent memoir, DEVIL'S PACT: INSIDE THE WORLD OF THE TEAMSTERS (1996).

Zeller recounts how the Teamsters ponied up millions of dollars to support
Ronald Reagan and his Republicans in 1980, but did even more yeoman work for the Republicans in propaganda that union and working class voters really wanted Reagan. The Teamsters conducted a mail ballot poll of their members' preferences for President. When the results showed a strong preference for Carter, Zeller was ordered to throw away ballots and rig the poll and announce that Teamster members favored Ronald Reagan. As the only major union supporting Reagan, the Teamsters were crucial for Reagan in campaigning not just as a candidate of the wealthy but as someone who related to blue-collar concerns.

When Reagan was elected President, the Teamsters were rewarded handsomely and directly for their support. Within days of his inauguration, Reagan made a public visit to the DC Teamster "Marble Palace" headquarters, the first President ever to do so. Reagan also chose as labor secretary Ray Donovan, the hand-picked choice of the top leadership of the Teamsters. Donovan was a contractor involved with many of the same corrupt business deals that many Teamster leaders had in New Jersey. (Donovan was indicted but not convicted for his association with those deals.)

But most importantly, the Reagan White House agreed to pull back
investigations into corruption among the Teamster leadership. Individual
leaders might get indicted, but a full-scale housecleaning was no longer
in the cards. Just as Nixon's deal with the Teamsters and Jimmy Hoffa's
pardon had lessened the pressure for the 1970s, the Republican-Teamster
deal of 1980 would let mob-connected officials loot the dues of union
members for most of the 1980s.

In 1984, the Teamsters dutifully rigged another poll of its members to
fake rank-and-file support for Reagan and poured millions more into
Republican races. The Teamsters endorsed Ronald Reagan and he basked in the image of blue-collar "Reagan Democrats" supporting him and his
Republican party.

Soon then-Teamster President Jackie Presser was indicted and as he turned government informant, more and more of the dirt on the Teamsters went public. Yet, the Reagan White House, while distancing themselves from the Teamsters, did little to pursue comprehenisve reform in the union. Instead, the legal impetus for change came from a maverick, show-boating U.S. Attorney in New York named Rudolph Giuliani (now mayor) who had been pursuing corruption in local New York Teamster locals; in 1988 he filed a lawsuit against the International Teamster union demanding that the whole union be put into trusteeship by the government in order to clean out the corruption.

Rank-and-file Teamster reformers in the 10,000-strong Teamsters for a
Democratic Union pushed Giuliani to avoid trusteeship in favor of open
elections by the membership. In 1989, Giuliani offered the Teamster
leadership a deal; if they agreed to direct elections of top officers by
the membership under federal supervision, no trusteeship.

Now why was direct elections such a big deal?

Well, throughout the 1980s (and in earlier years), local delegates to
national Teamster conventions had little chance of getting elected if they
opposed union corruption. Thomas Geoghegan, a labor lawyer and writer,
described a large part of his job in the 1980s: "I represent Teamster
dissidents who get beaten up at the Union hall. Oh yes, really beaten
up...the client is really bleeding. He is really at the hospital. His
wife, hysterical, is really calling on the phone."

As the Reagan administration accepted Teamster leadership money and
endorsements while protecting them from investigation, rank-and-file
dissidents were organizing and pushing for reform and often bleeding in
the hospital at the end of the day. Many were members of Teamsters for a
Democratic Union, but they faced the problem that it was possible to clean
up an a local union (and there were many honest Teamster locals despite
the national corruption) but nearly impossible to gain the critical mass
to penetrate giant locals firmly in the hands of corruption.

--end quote--

[sunny]

Starman, that is so right on. My uncle (now deceased) was a Teamster from the '60's up until the early '80's. Lacking information, he could not understand the endorsement of Reagan. I'll never forget what he said at the time: "He'll screw us as sure as the sun shines. Everybody thinks so"

[chiggerbit]

Oh.....my.....gosh! Why don't I remember any of this, the part prior to the eighties? And Giuliani, of all people.

Thank you, Starman.

[chiggerbit]

Scheeze, you have to check this out:

http://www.buyandhold.com/bh/en/educati ... eagan.html

In Honor of Ronald Reagan
Brian Trumbore
President/Editor, StocksandNews.com
In honor of Ronald Reagan's 90th birthday, I thought I'd do a story on his handling of the air traffic controllers union back in 1981, just months after he took office. While this isn't a standard Wall Street history piece, it certainly was a historic moment in the annals of labor unions and Reagan set the tone for a generation of management / labor issues, the vast majority of which were settled peaceably and for the good of the U.S. economy.

When Ronald Reagan took the oath of office in January 1981, he put forward in his inaugural address that government was not the solution to the nation's difficulties, it was the major cause. But while the nation was clamoring for a change in tone, in light of the depressing Carter years, it was still unclear just what kind of leader Reagan would be.

Then on March 30, just two months into his presidency, Reagan was shot by John Hinckley. The president's brave handling of the near fatal assassination attempt helped enhance his standing among the people. Following a series of congressional victories, his image would soar even further that summer.

The American aviation system employed some 17,000 air traffic controllers, organized under the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization (PATCO). The members were upset that the wage increase they had been offered was below what they sought. They also argued that the stress of the job demanded a shorter workweek and earlier retirement options, on top of the extra cash. Some of their grievances were legitimate, such as the plea for a more modernized air traffic control system. And since earlier in the century, the American people had a sympathetic ear when it came to union matters (after all, at one time over 60% of workers in this country were part of organized labor), and it was assumed by PATCO that they would win over the people's support.

And when one thinks of the job of an air traffic controller, certainly the issue of stress is at the top of shared concerns. Just one mistake in judgment could cause the death of hundreds of passengers. In this respect, the work of a controller was unlike any other.

And so it was that on August 3, 1981, 13,000 of the 17,000 controllers went on strike. In the immediate aftermath of the strike announcement, there was bedlam in the entire U.S. transportation network. Management scrambled to fill the slots (controlling air traffic themselves, in most cases) and the airlines were able to operate at only 70% capacity. But if PATCO thought they were going to have their way with President Reagan because he would be too concerned about the financial impact a prolonged strike could have on the American economy, well, they were about to find out otherwise.

PATCO's members were in total defiance of federal law as there was a ban on strikes by government employees. In fact, each PATCO member had taken an oath not to strike when they were first hired. It was Reagan time.

Reagan's hero had always been Calvin Coolidge. And both believed in the virtues of hard work, frugality, and obligation to duty. Once, as governor of Massachusetts, Coolidge had turned the National Guard loose on a strike by Boston's policemen. [This one action had basically earned him the vice presidential slot on the 1920 ticket.] Coolidge and Reagan felt that once you took oaths, you were held to them. So Reagan acted quickly.

Ironically, PATCO had supported the president in the 1980 campaign. But, as Reagan biographer Dinesh D'Souza wrote, "(while) political calculation might dictate that a new president should work out an amicable settlement rather than alienate a powerful union that supported him and risk paralyzing the country's civil aviation system," Reagan didn't buy that argument.

In his meetings with advisers, Reagan quoted Coolidge, "There is no right to strike against the public safety by anybody, anywhere, any time." With the backing of transportation secretary Drew Lewis, Reagan gave the controllers just 48 hours to return to work. 48 hours later most of them were fired. Reagan observed in his memoirs that his action "convinced people who might have thought otherwise that I meant what I said." Just as importantly, on a far bigger stage, Reagan's decision also helped show the Soviets that he was a decisive, no-nonsense leader.

PATCO's leader, Robert Poli, still naively thought that he could shut down the nation's airports and that the administration would have to give in to their demands. But instead, the government scrambled to hire more controllers (many from the military) and the disruption to air traffic proved to be brief. And amazingly, the American people stood with Reagan in large numbers. It wasn't too long before air traffic was back to normal, fears of disaster having been unwarranted.

But on the second thought, just imagine what would have happened had one accident occurred during this time. The blood would have been on many hands, including Ronald Reagan, himself.

As D'Souza notes (he was a Reagan aide at the time), the president adopted this stern course of action without consulting any polls. Yet, much to the surprise of many on his staff (who were often incredulous at some of his actions), the American people supported him because they were convinced that principle mattered, especially in the face of threats and intimidation. By this one incident, which set the tone for the whole presidency, "Reagan proved that the right thing to do can also be politically advantageous."

It took two years to fully train the new controllers, but we all survived, disruptions were few and PATCO was dead. The American labor movement had suffered its worst defeat in decades and the balance of power in labor disputes shifted towards management. Reagan's image as a courageous leader was burnished.


Sources:

"American Heritage: The Presidents," Michael Beschloss
"The Presidents," edited by Henry Graff
"The American Century," Harold Evans
"Ronald Reagan," Dinesh D'Souza

Brian Trumbore

[chiggerbit]

Your material jiggled something in the back of my brain, Starman. I knew it was something I had been digging into lately (the Marc Rich pardon). Found it. I tend to follow tangents, and MaryJo White was this tangent. Now, I can't stand DiGenova and his wife, and MaryJo White appears to be one of those terribly dedicated USA's, but this little blurb seemed odd--out of character, possibly-- so I saved it. I wonder what the story is.


http://mediamatters.org/items/200501140005

(

("DiGenova, a conservative Republican, would introduce something new at the IRB [Teamsters union Internal Review Board]. He might recommend that it is time to end the monitoring that has cost the union more than $75 million. [Federal prosecutor Mary Jo] White did her best to obstruct the 1998 congressional investigation of the Teamsters conducted by diGenova and his law partner-wife, Victoria Toensing. Nor is diGenova an admirer of Mary Jo White's glacial pursuit of the pre-Hoffa conspiracy between the Teamsters, the AFL-CIO and the Democratic National Committee as the statute of limitations is about to block further prosecution." [8/1/2001] )

[chiggerbit]

And I had forgotten that Nixon had pardoned Hoffa. That makes three pardons that fascinate me. Rabbit holes, each one of them, much deeper rabbit holes than they look on the surface.

[chiggerbit]

Btw, when MaryJo White resigned, can't remember the year, she was replaced by Comey, of the Ashcroft-hospital-visit fame. She was also the one who prosecuted the 93 WTC bombing.

[chiggerbit]

Consider the source on this, as Insight is a Moonie mag:

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m ... i_81391992

[chiggerbit]

I have no clue about this author. I'm still tying to figure out the agenda surrounding this woman. Is this a case of a hatchet job being done on her?

The reason I'm interested in her is that she was the one appointed to investigate Clinton's pardon of Marc Rich, an investigation prompted somewhat, although not totally, by partisan politics of the 2001 Congress. And White having been a Clinton appointee makes it seem strange that she was the one appointed to investigate Clinton's pardon of Rich. Anyway, she left before the investigation was done.

http://www.thelaborers.net/NEWS/mary_jo_white.htm

Mary Jo White's Tenure in the Southern District of New York
An Assessment of Her Prosecution of Union Corruption
By Ken Boehm

0n November 16, Mary Jo White,
U.S. Attorney for the Southern
District of New York, announced
she would resign her position by the end
of the year. It is not every day that the
resignation of a federal prosecutor makes
national news, but the Southern District
is no ordinary post. It is noted for its pros-
ecution of infamous criminals from Wall
Street and the Mafia, and, in the 1990s,
Arab terrorists. It is also noted for the
prosecution of corrupt union officials,
including former International Brother-
hood of Teamsters (IBT) president Ron
Carey.

On October 12, Carey was acquitted
in federal court of seven counts of per-
jury. He was accused of lying 63 times on
seven occasions when questioned by gov-
ernment investigators and a grand jury
regarding his knowledge of an illegal
money swap scheme that raised over half
a million dollars for his 1996 reelection
campaign as union president. The
government's investigation resulted in the
overturning of Carey's election and the
conviction of four of his close aides. Fur-
ther, the investigation implicated several
high ranking union officials in the money
swap scheme, including AFL-CIO secre-
tary-treasurer Richard Trumka. So why
did Carey get off? And why have Trumka
and others possibly implicated in the scan-
dal not been investigated?

Much of the blame may lie with the
prosecution in the Carey criminal case,
which was headed by White. Who is she?
What exactly did she do wrong in this
case? What did she fail to do? And how
will her tenure affect her successor's ef-
forts to prosecute union corruption? These
are questions this article aims to answer.

Clinton-Era Prosecutor

White became head of the Southern
District in 1993, when she was part of the
Clinton Administration's scramble for
women in the Justice Department. She
joined President Clinton's short list for
Attorney General after his first two
choices, corporate attorney Zoe Baird and
U.S. District Judge Kimba M. Wood,
withdrew their nominations for their al-
leged employment of undocumented do-
mestics. White lost that competition to
Janet Reno, and was also passed over for
Assistant Attorney General in charge of
Justice's Criminal Division in favor of
former federal prosecutor Jo Ann Harris.

However, in the wake of Reno's
"March Massacre"-former Senator Rob-
ert J. Dole's (R-KS) phrase for the "re
quested" mass resignations of all U.S.
Attorneys by the Clinton Administra-
tion-plenty of U.S. Attorney positions
came open. On June 22, 1993, President
Clinton selected White for the prestigious
Southern District assignment in Manhat-
tan on the recommendation of then-Sena-
tor Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-NY).
New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani
(R) held the post during the Reagan and
George H.W. Bush Administrations.

White's top qualifications for the
Southern District job were two stints as
an Assistant U.S. Attorney: in the South
ern District from 1978 to 1981 and in the
Eastern District of New York from 1990
to 1993. In the Eastern District, she served
as second-in-command and as acting U.S.
Attorney for several months in 1992 and
1993.

White holds an undergraduate degree
from the College of William & Mary and
a master's degree in psychology from
New York's New School for Social Re-
search. She graduated near the top of her
law school class at Columbia University
in 1974, and went on to serve as a law
clerk to U.S. District Judge Marvin E.
Frankel, a Johnson appointee, in the
Southern District. She also worked as a
white-collar criminal defense attorney
from 1981 to 1990 at the New York firm
of Debevoise & Plimpton, where she be-
came a partner in 1983.

Harold Ickes' Clinton Connection
What role, if any, New York labor at-
torney Harold Ickes played in White's
appointment is a big question. Ickes is a
heavy hitter in Democratic Party circles.
His past posts include: Clinton White
House Deputy Chief of Staff, top
fundraiser for Clinton-Gore `96, official
organizer of the 1992 Democratic National
Convention, Clinton campaign
manager for the 1992 New York primary,
and Senate campaign advisor for Hillary
Clinton. His strong New York legal and
political ties and close connection to the
Clintons raise the possibility that he may
have influenced Bill Clinton's decision to
appoint White to the Southern District.
This is troubling given Ickes's past.

On October 26, 2000, the Wall Street
Journal described Ickes as having a "his-
tory of representing unions, some of them
with eyebrow-raising ties to organized
crime." For example, Ickes-a member of
the Long Island firm of Meyer, Suozzi,
English & Klein-represented New Jer-
sey Teamsters Local 560 in a 1986 rack-
eteering suit that alleged, among other
things, that Local 560 had a history of violence
against opponents of the late Teamster
boss and alleged member of the
Genovese crime family Anthony "Tony
Pro" Provenzano. The suit led to government
control over the local which only
recently ended in 1999. The specter of
Ickes in combination with White's poor
handling of the money-laundering case,
discussed below, leads one to question
White's use of prosecutorial discretion.

White Takes Manhattan
Soon after her appointment as head
of the Southern District, White butted
heads with Manhattan's popular District
Attorney Robert M. Morgenthau (D),
whose most famous union corruption case
to date, a massive scandal involving
AFSCME District Council 37 in New
York, led to criminal charges against more
than 30 union bosses and vendors. Ac-
cording to the New York Post, Morgenthau
and White have been rivals since her
Southern District appointment in an on-
going "War of the Prosecutors."

The conflict came to a head in Sep-
tember 2000, when Morgenthau charged
38 individuals-including union bosses,
contractors, and reputed Luchese crime
family members-with bribery, bid-rig-
ging, and other construction-related rack-
eteering schemes. The unions implicated
were the Bricklayers, Carpenters, and
Laborers. An hour before Morgenthau
announced his sweeping indictments,
White made a similar, but weaker, an-
nouncement.

Both Morgenthau and White tapped
Luchese phones for two years and built
almost identical cases. But Morgenthau's
indictments were far more comprehensive
and included racketeering charges, which
White was apparently unable to substan-
tiate. Compared to Morgenthau's 38,
White could only muster charges against
six lower-level mobsters and no union
bosses. Morgenthau expressed surprise
when he learned of White's indictments:
reporters at his own news conference
showed him White's press release!

Nevertheless, White has prosecuted
some pretty big fish in the Southern District:
mobster John A. "Junior" Gotti and
the bombers responsible for the first
World Trade Center attack in 1993 and the
U.S. embassy attacks in Kenya and Tanzania
in 1998. The Bill Clinton-Marc Rich
pardon scandal also fell within her jurisdiction
because Giuliani prosecuted Rich
out of the Southern District.

The Teamster Scandal
White's office is responsible for prosecuting
the Teamsters scandal because the
1989 consent decree that ended a Justice
Department racketeering suit against the
Teamsters was settled in the Southern
District. The decree gave a federal judge
the authority to supervise internal union
operations. It also created several supervisory
posts, such as an election monitor,
and an Internal Review Board (IRB),
which handles corruption matters and is
supervised by the judge. U.S. District
Judge Loretta A. Preska, appointed by
President George H.W. Bush, currently
oversees the decree.

In the 1996 Teamsters presidential
election, incumbent Ron Carey narrowly
defeated Detroit union attorney James P.
Hoffa-son of the legendary Teamster
president James R. ("Jimmy") Hoffa. But
Hoffa's camp sensed something was
amiss. His campaign aides pored over
Carey's campaign disclosure documents
and found evidence of serious wrongdoing.
It turned out that Carey's campaign
had raised $538,100 through an illegal
money swap scheme that involved giving
"donations" from the union's general
treasury-total: $885,000-to select organizations
that agreed to route a portion
of such "donations" to Carey's reelection
effort.

Carey's election was overturned. He
was disqualified from the presidency and
later expelled from the union. Hoffa then
won the rerun election against Tom
Leedham, who was vice president under
Carey. (Hoffa beat Leedham for the
Teamsters presidency again this year.)
At first, White jumped right on the
case. Soon after the scandal broke, she
indicted Carey campaign consultant Mar
tin Davis, campaign manager Jere Nash,
and direct mail vendor Michael Ansara
for their roles in the money swap scheme.
All three pled guilty in 1997. Davis admitted
to conspiracy, mail fraud, embezzlement,
and making false statements
to a court officer. Nash admitted to conspiracy
and fraud charges. Ansara admitted
to charges of conspiracy.

Following this promising start, the
prosecution got terribly bogged down,
earning White the title "Mary Jo Molasses"
from New York Times columnist William
Safire. Two years later, the case
inched forward with the November 1999
trial of former Teamsters political director
William W. Hamilton, Davis and
Nash's inside man for funneling the
$885,000 out of the union's coffers. The
jury convicted Hamilton, a former
AFSCME and Planned Parenthood
staffer, on all six counts of conspiracy,
embezzlement, fraud, and perjury. He was
sentenced to three years in federal prison
and ordered to pay $100,000 in restitution
-a small amount compared to what
his activities cost the union.

The restitution matter brought to
light a serious gaffe by White. The Teamsters
union wanted to collect about $3
million in restitution either from
Hamilton alone or from Hamilton, Davis,
and Ansara. This included the $885,000
in embezzled funds plus the $2.2 million
the union spent on the rerun election. As
part of their pleas, Davis paid $500,000
and Ansara put $395,000 into escrow.
Under the Mandatory Victims Restitution
Act, restitution of the full amount of a
victim's loss is mandatory. But White's
office-in an error it later admitted-
treated the amounts as discretionary and
agreed to let Davis and Ansara pay lesser
amounts.

White's office sought to make up for
the error during the trial by asking for
Hamilton's restitution to be set at
$885,000, but to no avail. U.S. District
Judge Thomas P. Griesa, a Nixon appoin-
tee, set restitution at $100,000, calling
Hamilton "a man of quite modest means"
who could face limited earning opportu-
nities after prison. He called White's rec-
ommendation of $885,000 "totally unre-
alistic," and scolded White and her of-
fice for failing to submit papers that could
help guide him through the restitution
process. Had White's office done its
homework, it could have easily argued
that there is nothing "unrealistic" about
requiring a convicted felon to return all
that he stole.

Unfortunately for the Teamsters, the
union is bound by White's costly error.
On its own, the union tried to recover its
loss through a civil racketeering suit
against Davis and others, but U.S. Dis-
trict Judge Laura T. Swain, a Clinton ap-
pointee, dismissed that case on October
1, 2001.

The criminal case fell into another
two-year lull of inactivity, until January
25, 2001, when White indicted Carey on
seven counts of perjury and making false
statements. Carey was not charged with
participating in the complex corruption
scandal, but with lying about his knowl-
edge of it to federal officials and a grand
jury.

Jere Nash, testifying for the prosecu-
tion in Carey's trial, said that Carey first
rejected a $225,000 donation to the lib
eral activist group Citizen Action, but later
approved it after Nash told him that giv-
ing the money to Citizen Action would
help raise money for his campaign. How-
ever, on October 12, Carey was acquitted
of all charges. White blew it-big time.
The Hamilton Folly

White and her office made at least two
blunders that demonstrate their incompe-
tence in handling the Carey case. First,
trying the case nearly five years after the
events took place was unwise. Trying a
case sooner rather than later means the
recollection of witnesses is fresher unless
one needs time to build a stronger case.
There was no good reason for not indict-
ing Carey hot on the heels of the Hamilton
victory in 1999. Further, both cases could
have been brought in late 1997 or early
1998-White's office did not acquire any
significant new evidence after November
1997, when Carey was disqualified from
the Teamsters presidency.

Second and more importantly, White
put a hostile witness, the imprisoned
Hamilton, on the stand only to have him
undermine her case against Carey. Despite
being called by the prosecution,
Hamilton's testimony bolstered the
defense's contention that Carey was un-
aware that the donations were linked to
his campaign. Hamilton testified that he
never told Carey that a series of political
contributions was linked to a money-laun-
dering scheme to generate funds for
Carey's campaign.

Hamilton, who did not take the stand
in his own trial, testified that he had only
discussed the contributions with Carey
twice and had not mentioned their links
to the campaign. According to Hamilton,
Carey asked him shortly before the 1996
national presidential election why the
Teamsters' political division was spend-
ing so much money out of the general trea-
sury. Hamilton said he told Carey that the
spending was "appropriate" and that it was
necessary because the union's political ac-
tion fund had been exhausted. He said that
Carey's only response was to acknowl-
edge the issue.

Hamilton also claimed that, in the
only other conversation on the matter,
Carey gave him a noncommittal reply to
a telephoned request for funds. Hamilton
claimed that Nash told him Carey would
be informed of the scheme, but that noth-
ing Carey said in this phone conversation
suggested that that was the case.
It is puzzling why the prosecution
called on Hamilton, who testified with-
out a grant of immunity or any other deal
from the prosecution-and therefore had
no incentive to help the prosecution. In
fact, Hamilton's testimony was so detri-
mental that it forced Assistant U.S. At-
torney Andrew Dember to attempt to un-
dercut the credibility of the prosecution's
own witness!

Had Hamilton been a defense witness,
prosecutors would have had an easier time
undermining his credibility-here was a
convicted felon with an axe to grind with
the prosecutors who sent him to prison and
a committed leftist-unionist willing to
help Carey. But this line of argument was
hopelessly weak when it was the prosecu-
tors who put the defective witness on the
stand.

This also allowed the defense-which
did not have to worry about supporting
Hamilton as its own witness-to concen-
trate on undermining Nash's credibility.
In the end, Hamilton's testimony created
enough reasonable doubt for the jury to
acquit Carey. Again, White blew it.

Big Fish Still Out There

White's prosecution of the case has
produced some positive results. She got
guilty pleas from Nash, Davis, and
Ansara; convicted Hamilton; and at least
brought Carey to trial. But she has also
failed to act against many more individu-
als who may have participated in these
crimes. The benefits of her prosecution of
Hamilton and Carey were marginal. She
went after out-of-power has-beens, while
apparently giving a pass to individuals
still in power-corrupt individuals who
pose an ongoing threat of corruption to
their organizations and to the American
political process. White's successor
should focus on these individuals' role in
the Teamsters money laundering scandal,
and prosecute where appropriate.

Richard Trumka - Chief on the list
should be AFL-CIO secretary-treasurer
Richard L. Trumka, who twice invoked
the Fifth Amendment when asked by fed-
eral officials about his role in the scan-
dal. At Hamilton's trial, White's office
showed that a key meeting for planning
an illegal $150,000 transaction took place
in Trumka's AFL-CIO office with him
present. In this transaction, Hamilton gave
$150,000 to the AFL-CIO, which turned
it over to Citizen Action. Of that amount,
$100,000 went to the November Group,
Davis's consulting firm, to cover Carey
campaign expenses.

Additionally, Trumka allegedly solic-
ited and/or contributed $50,000, some in
cash, to the Carey campaign. Federal la
bor law and Teamsters election rules clas-
sify union officials as "employers" and
therefore prohibit them from making
union campaign contributions.
White's failure to act made a prob-
lem out of the statutes of limitations for
the likely crimes in this case, which are
generally five years. Any such crimes oc-
curred in the second half of 1996, so the
five-year limits have either expired or are
about to.

Judith Scott - Another target for inves-
tigation should be former Teamsters gen-
eral counsel Judith A. Scott, who worked
for the United Mine Workers during the
1980s and early 1990s, when Trumka was
president of that union.

According to court records, Scott ap-
proved Hamilton's forwarding of a
$475,000 check to Citizen Action, of
which $110,000 made its way to a front
group called "Teamsters for a Corruption
Free Union" (TCFU) and then to the No-
vember Group for Carey campaign ex-
penses.

At Carey's trial, Hamilton testified
that he discussed the scheme with Scott,
who then told former Teamsters secre
tary-treasurer Tom Sever that the union's
board need not review the large contri-
bution. Sever then allowed the check to
be issued on the condition that Scott pro-
duce a legal memorandum supporting her
view. It was not until January 1997, three
months after the contribution was made,
that Scott produced the memorandum.
Reportedly, Sever viewed the memoran-
dum as inadequate because, among other
things, it failed to address the specific
contribution to Citizen Action. Scott left
the Teamsters in February 1997 to be-
come general counsel to the Service Em-
ployees International Union (SEIU).

Andrew Stern and Edgar James - An-
other potential target is Scott's current
boss, SEIU president Andrew L. Stern,
who promised, like Trumka, to raise
$50,000 for Carey's campaign, but fell
short on this commitment. Nash then ap-
proached Edgar N. James, an attorney
representing SEIU, who agreed to help
raise the $50,000. Ultimately, James only
raised $16,000, which he contributed to
TCFU-which in turn forwarded it to the
November Group. Like union officials,
attorneys are classified as "employers"
under IBT election rules and federal la-
bor law, and are not allowed to solicit for
or contribute to Teamster candidates. In-
terestingly, Judith Scott is the third rank-
ing member of James's Washington law
firm of James & Hoffman.

Theodore Kheel - In a similar situation
as James is Theodore W. Kheel, a labor
attorney at the New York firm of Paul,
Hastings, Janofsky & Walker. According
to court records, Kheel was contacted by
Charles McDonald of the AFL-CIO's
Union Privilege credit card and later by
Davis about a contribution to the Carey
campaign. Kheel told investigators that he
agreed to contribute $20,000, but wanted
Davis' assurance that his contribution
would be kept secret. Davis then visited
Kheel's office, where Kheel gave him an
envelope containing $20,000 in cash.
Gerald McEntee and Paul Booth -

AFSCME president Gerald W. McEntee
and AFSCME organizing director Paul
Booth also allegedly conspired to solicit
and/or contribute $50,000 to the Carey
campaign. Again, union officials qualify
as "employers," and therefore are barred
from making donations to union candi-
dates by both IBT election rules and fed-
eral labor law. According to court records,
Booth raised $7,100 on his own and
$20,000 with the help of McEntee.

Citizen Action - Another target could be
the liberal activist group Citizen Action-
or rather, its current incarnation, U.S.
Action. Citizen Action's former executive
director Ira Arlook and others apparently
helped Davis launder money for the Carey
campaign-hardly a legitimate purpose
for a tax-exempt organization. On Novem-
ber 6, 1997, my organization, the National
Legal and Policy Center (NLPC), filed an
IRS complaint requesting an audit of the
nonprofit Citizen Action for its role in the
money laundering schemes. While the IRS
has yet to take public action on the com-
plaint, Citizen Action folded as a result
of the scandal. But a successor organiza-
tion, U.S. Action, is trying to make a
comeback.

Terry McAuliffe and the DNC - White's
successor should also look into the pos-
sible involvement of several individuals
at the Democratic National Committee
(DNC)-including current DNC head
Terry McAuliffe. Davis, Nash, and
Hamilton almost succeeded in getting
$100,000 from the general IBT fund
through the DNC to the Carey campaign.
According to the Hamilton trial transcript,
players in this scheme included DNC fi-
nance director Richard Sullivan, Clinton-
Gore `96 finance director Laura Hartigan,
and then-Clinton fundraiser McAuliffe.
The swap scam fell apart at the last minute
amid fears about the transaction's legal-
ity, but the crime of conspiracy does not
require the conspirators to be successful.
Timing and Playing Politics

As a former prosecutor, I would like
to give White the benefit of the doubt on
the statute of limitations issue, but her de
lays and failures in what should have been
slam-dunk cases give the appearance that
she was playing politics with her
prosecutorial discretion. And there are
other instances that suggest as much,
mainly her interactions with Rep. Peter
Hoekstra (R-MI) and new Teamsters In-
dependent Review Board (IRB) member
Joseph E. diGenova.

The Derailed Hoekstra Investigation -
White effectively thwarted Hoekstra's
Oversight and Investigation Subcommit-
tee (within the House Education and
Workforce Committee) hearings into the
Teamsters scandal. When Hoekstra was
hot on the trail of Trumka and others in
1997 and 1998, White asked him to back
off, arguing that his probe might jeopar-
dize her prosecution. Hoekstra obliged
and then waited-and waited, and was
still waiting for White to act when she
announced her resignation from the
Southern District. Hoekstra told Insight
magazine that Congress should never
again defer to White's judgment: "Her
work on the Teamsters scandal
demonstrates ... that, when she says we are
jeopardizing her investigation, it would
be legitimate to respond, 'Excuse me, but
which investigation are we jeopardizing?
Nothing has happened."'

The diGenova Nomination - White's
embarrassing defeat in the diGenova case
provides the clearest illustration of her
political tendencies. The Teamsters' In-
ternal Review Board (IRB) is composed
of three members: one chosen by the
union, one by the Justice Department, and
one jointly by the other two members-
and all must be approved by the IRB's
overseeing judge.

In August 2001, Judge Preska ap-
proved IBT's designation of diGenova, a
former U.S. Attorney for Washington,
DC, to be its IRB representative.
DiGenova replaced Grant Crandall, a la-
bor attorney selected in 1996 by Carey
whose five-year term had expired.
Preska approved diGenova despite
attacks by White who reportedly did not
want a conservative Republican on the
Board. Initially, White reportedly killed
the Bush Administration's plan to name
diGenova as its IRB representative
through some behind-the-scenes maneu-
vering. Teamsters president James P.
Hoffa, who has been trying to improve
his union's relationship with the govern-
ment, countered White by selecting
diGenova as the union's representative to
the Board. White reportedly then
launched an underground campaign to try
to block diGenova again. White con-
tended in a letter to Preska that diGenova
could not remain neutral while serving on
the IRB. In the end, White's efforts to
block diGenova proved futile.

As She Rides Off Into the Sunset

The simple fact that White was a
Clinton appointee handling a politically
sensitive caseload should have been rea
son enough for the incoming Bush Ad-
ministration to show her the door on Janu-
ary 20. But she was not terminated be-
cause she jumped on the Clinton-Rich
pardon probe, is looking into possible
wrongdoing by Senator Robert G.
Torricelli (D-NJ), and, more significantly,
has some expertise in prosecuting terror-
ists, mainly those involved in the Africa
and 1993 World Trade Center attacks. On
November 16, the day of her resignation
announcement, the Washington Post re-
ported that the Torricelli and pardon in-
vestigations are winding to a close.

Earlier this year, as two terrorist cases
on the 1998 Africa bombings were pend-
ing, White failed to win death sentences
against two of Osama bin Laden's hench-
men: Khalfan Khamis Mohamed and
Mohamed Rashed Daoud 'Owhali.
The September 11 terrorist attacks
created a heightened need for prosecutors
to focus on terrorism, so for a while it
appeared unlikely that White would be
asked to leave. But that changed on Octo-
ber 9, when Attorney General John
Ashcroft formed the "9/11 Task Force" to
manage Justice's prosecution of terrorists.
New York Times reporters David Johnson
and Benjamin Weiser bluntly called it "a
rebuff of Mary Jo White" because, unlike
recent terrorism prosecutions, central de-
cision making will now be made in Wash-
ington, not New York.

It is possible that the dual blows, in
the same week, of bungling the Carey trial
and being stripped of prominent terrorist
prosecution authority, may have influ-
enced White's decision. She traveled to
Washington in October to lobby Attorney
General Ashcroft to allow her to keep con-
trol over any indictments related to the
World Trade Center attacks, but was un-
successful.

A successor has not been named as of
this writing. Possible candidates include:
New York Governor George Pataki's
counsel Jim McGuire, onetime aide to
former Senator Alfonse D'Amato (R-NY)
Robert Giuffria, former assistant U.S. At-
torney Thomas E. Engel, and federal pros-
ecutor John R. Wing.

From the perspective of the Teamsters
money-laundering scandal, White leaves
behind a major lost case and a host of pos
sible suspects still at large. Powerful in-
dividuals such as Richard Trumka and
Terry McAuliffe should not be given a free
ride. Justice requires a different result.
Therefore, it is imperative that President
Bush appoint a Southern District prosecu-
tor who will be ready to hit the ground
running in the prosecution of union cor-
ruption. Judging from what White has left
undone, her successor will have a lot of
catching up to do.

Ken Boehm is Chairman of the National
Legal and Policy Center, a union corruption
watchdog group that publishes the
Union Corruption Update newsletter. See
www.nlpc.org.

[Seamus OBlimey]

Interesting stuff. It sounds a lot like what was going on here around the same time..

Enemies within: Thatcher and the unions
By Paul Wilenius
BBC political correspondent

Margaret Thatcher was the nemesis of the trade union movement.

Together with miners' leader Arthur Scargill, she managed to destroy the power of the trade unions for almost a generation.

Only now, more than 13 years after her departure, are they beginning to find their feet again.

To understand the scale of what supporters called her achievement, others call her shameful legacy, it is important to look at the impact of the unions in the 1970s.

It is difficult to comprehend today how much power union barons like the then miners' leader Joe Gormley and transport union boss Jack Jones wielded in those days. There were endless strikes afflicting the Post Office, steel industry, the ferries, steelworks and much more.

There was also "Red Robbo", the union leader Derek Robinson who repeatedly brought car and truck-maker British Leyland to a standstill in the Midlands.

Labour ministers courted union chiefs; Conservative governments were humiliated by them.

Winter of discontent

It was a particularly galling situation for the Tories. When Ted Heath tried to take on the unions from Number Ten he suffered a string of indignities, including the three-day week.

In 1974 he foolishly decided to fight an election on the question "Who governs Britain?" The voters answered by installing Labour's Harold Wilson as prime minister.

Heath's defeat led to the arrival the following year of a little-known right-winger, Margaret Thatcher, as leader of the opposition. Her rise coincided with a spreading belief that union power was getting out of hand. She recognised that ordinary people, among them many trade unionists, were fed up with incessant strikes and walkouts.

Then in 1978 Labour Prime Minister James Callaghan made the political miscalculation that would put his party out of office for a generation. Rather than hold an election later that year, he decided to soldier on to the following spring.

Thanks to the delay, his government ran into the now legendary "winter of discontent". It ran through the first three months of 1979; its effects lasted far longer.

Public sector workers were out on strike for weeks. Uncollected mountains of rubbish piled high in the cities, Green Goddesses were on the streets, and bodies remained unburied. The latter happened in one city, Liverpool, but became an emblem of the chaos inflicted on the public by the unions.

Stage set for Thatcher

It was disastrous for the government. Labour had always been able to present its close relations with the unions as an asset that allowed it to deal with them effectively; that relationship had now become a liability.

At the May 1979 election Mrs Thatcher squeaked into Downing Street with a 30-seat majority.

Her economic policies helped weaken the unions. The recession of the early 1980s saw manufacturing, the main area of union strength, shrink by half while unemployment soared to over three million. Union membership plummeted from a peak of 12 million in the late 70s to almost half that by the late 80s.

She appointed her henchman Norman Tebbit as employment secretary. Though a former leader of the BALPA pilots' union, it was a job he relished.

He set about stripping the unions of their legal protection. Flying pickets, the shock troops of industrial warfare, were banned and could no longer blockade factories, ports, public bodies and much more during disputes. Strike ballots became compulsory. The closed shop, which forced people to join a union if they were seeking employment in a particular trade, was outlawed.

Showdown with miners

But Maggie still wanted a showdown with a major union. She got her wish in 1984 when the battle mode she had recently adopted for the Falklands conflict was directed towards a new combatant: Arthur Scargill, who led his loyal troops into the trap she set.

As she famously - and controversially - framed the dispute at the time, "We had to fight the enemy without in the Falklands. We always have to be aware of the enemy within, which is much more difficult to fight and more dangerous to liberty."

Mr Scargill gave her strategy a boost when he called a national pit strike without a ballot. As a result, Nottinghamshire miners - who opposed the strike but would have supported one had a ballot backed it - continued working.

They kept the power stations going and the lights on, and eventually broke away from the NUM.

Curing the 'British disease'

Mrs Thatcher ran the campaign against Scargill as if it were a military operation.

Subsequent energy secretaries, Nigel Lawson and Peter Walker, had built up massive coal stocks. Striking miners and working miners' groups were infiltrated by MI5.

Large numbers of police were used to keep the pits open, leading to set-piece clashes like the battle of Orgreave.

But there was one moment in the Autumn of 1984 when Mrs Thatcher almost lost her bottle.

The NACODS pit deputies were preparing to join the strike, which would have closed the Nottingham coal field. She offered a peace deal to Scargill, but he refused to take it.

His loyal deputy Mick McGahey admitted privately: "Arthur has won and he doesn't even know it. He will destroy this union."

He was right. The deputies' strike didn't happen. The miners lost, returning to work humiliated in 1985.

The unions went into steep decline, having seen the lengths to which the state was prepared to go to vanquish them. They lost their power, influence, millions of members and a large swathe of their rights.

Most trade unions loathed her; but she remained utterly convinced of the need to cure the nation of what had become known as the "British disease", strike fever.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3067563.stm

I knew about the police brutality and the use of provocateurs to rabble-rouse the miners but wasn't aware of the extent of infiltration. More on that here and here.

[MinM]

Resting place? Informant Marvin Elkind claims a mob boss insinuated Hoffa was buried at the Renaissance Center in Detroit, Michigan - now General Motors' HQ

Detroit— Some say Jimmy Hoffa is buried somewhere under the west endzone at Giants Stadium in New Jersey. Others say he was cremated in a Hamtramck garbage incinerator or dumped in the Florida Everglades.

But a new book penned by a man who was Hoffa's driver and a Canadian journalist says the legendary Teamster boss is still in Detroit, buried beneath General Motors' headquarters at the Renaissance Center in Downtown Detroit.

The book — "The Weasel: A Double Life in the Mob" (Wiley; November 2011) — is the latest tome to expose what really happened to Hoffa. The book's authors are Marvin Elkind, a self-described "chauffeur and goon for mob bosses" who turned police informant, and Adrian Humphries, who has written two other books about the mafia.

Elkind claims he learned Hoffa was buried under the RenCen during a Teamsters conference in Detroit in 1985. Reputed mob boss Anthony Giacalone told him and a group of delegates, Elkind told the New York Post.

As the group left the hotel across the street from where the Renaissance Center was under construction, Giacalone nodded toward the new building's foundation and said, "Say good morning to Jimmy Hoffa, boys."

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... rs-HQ.html

[wordspeak2]

Thomas Geoghegan, a labor lawyer and writer,
described a large part of his job in the 1980s: "I represent Teamster
dissidents who get beaten up at the Union hall. Oh yes, really beaten
up...the client is really bleeding. He is really at the hospital. His
wife, hysterical, is really calling on the phone."

This is so synchronistic; I just opened a holiday present book by this Thomas Geoghegan. Not sure how I feel about it so far... about his work as a lawyer for United Mine Workers.
Seamus, I haven't clicked your links yet, but the extent of infiltration into the unions historically, as all social movements really, is certainly very vast.

[chiggerbit]

~bump~

Check out Mary Jo White.

[Wombaticus Rex]

Data Dump: The Humble Pension Fund

Clearly there is some digging to be done regarding the Teamsters big-ass pile of money...