by Berry Craig

MAYFIELD, Ky. -- “Did you ever notice how some politicians cuss when they get around us?” asked Larry Sanderson, a veteran Kentucky labor leader. “You know, they want us to think they’re one of us.”

Gov. Sarah Palin, the Republican vice presidential hopeful, didn’t curse during her debate with Sen. Joe Biden, her Democratic rival. Golly gee, no.

But perky Palin played the just-plain-folks card. “Hey, can I call ya Joe?” she greeted Biden.

Palin was down-home Wasilla, Alaska. She grinned like a possum, as we say in Kentucky. She was short on “straight talk” but long on clichés and homespun hokum. I heard an “I’ll betcha,” a “bless their hearts” and at least a pair of “darn rights.” She tossed in a “Joe Six Pack” and a “doggone it,” too.

Palin sounded like Police Chief Marge Gunderson in the movie Fargo, but without the smarts. I almost expected to hear a “Darn tootin!’” from the moose burger-munching “hockey mom.”

Anyway, Palin’s schtick was supposed to make working class voters think she’s one of us. Darn right, she was a union member, union-buster John McCain said when he named her his running mate.

That was more double-talk from senator “straight talk,” according to the Union Gal Internet blogsite. “Governor Palin received an ‘honorary’ membership in the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers,” Union Gal posted. “Not because she’s paid dues or been represented by the union, but because she pushed for a pipeline that had benefited the union’s membership.”

Like the Steelworkers, the IBEW has endorsed the Barack Obama-Joe Biden ticket.

Union Gal is not in the McCain-Palin corner. She said the idea of Palin being in a union “makes my skin crawl.”

Mine, too, but it also riles me when I hear Palin’s husband called, “First Dude,” like he’s a regular guy. Todd Palin’s politics are as nutty as hers. Before he registered Republican, he belonged to the Alaska Independence Party, a far right-wing, anti-government fringe group that wants Alaskans to be able to vote on secession from the United States.

Anyway, his union card “doesn’t include an automatic auxiliary membership for her,” said Steelworkers International President Leo W. Gerard on the union’s Internet website. That goes for McCain, too, he added. “…McCain[‘s]…record on labor issues would require some serious penance before he could ever earn a union card.”

Gerard pointed out that McCain opposes the Employee Free Choice Act. He also supported a national right-to-work law. McCain votes the labor

position on legislation just 16 percent of the time – zero percent in 2007 -- according to the AFL-CIO’s Committee on Political Education.

Biden and Obama are for the Employee Free Choice Act, and they oppose right-to-work. Obama’s COPE score is 98 percent overall and 100 percent in 2007. Biden’s is 85 percent lifetime and 100 percent in 2007.

“McCain has jeopardized retirement by championing Bush’s privatization scheme for social security,” Gerard also said. “McCain has voted for every American-job-killing free trade deal, without regard to human rights or environmental standards. And he has proposed, instead of providing health insurance for all Americans, a plan to tax the insurance of those lucky enough to still have employer-provided coverage.”

Mum is still the word from Palin about the Employee Free Choice Act, right-to-work, NAFTA and CAFTA. “Ms. Palin needs to stop trotting out her husband as an exhibit until she explains her positions on workers’ issues,” Gerard challenged.

He said the Palins have benefited from Todd Palin’s union membership. “Workers in labor organizations earn higher wages and are more likely to have pensions and health insurance….Todd Palin earns a good wage and has good health insurance. The Employee Free Choice Act would make it easier for other Americans to join unions and earn better money and obtain health insurance.”

Gerard added, “Inquiring minds want to know, Ms. Palin. Where do you stand on Employee Free Choice? Where do you stand on privatization of social security? Where do you stand on job-killing free trade?” I’d like to know where both Palins stand on union issues.

Gerard continued, “Are you with McCain – and against workers – on these issues? If so, you need to stop using your husband’s membership in the USW as a prop, because then his union card cannot possibly cover up your or John McCain’s worker-savaging positions.”

When McCain picked Palin, Gerard called the choice “another example of his poor judgment and his desire to play politics as usual. McCain-Palin is not a team that works for working families. The first-term governor’s record is thin and divisive. And John McCain has a life-long record of being for the rich and powerful. No union card can hide that any more than Ronald Reagan's union card did."

Reagan was the most anti-union president since Herbert Hoover. Palin praised Reagan in her debate with Biden.

I’ll betcha Palin’s union views are the same as Reagan’s and McCain’s. But, doggone it, she wore an American flag lapel pin in the debate. Darn right she did!