Union leaders played for chumps by the GOP ...

A month into his third term, Governor George Pataki unveiled a budget that has won him acclaim in national Republican circles for its strict adherence to a pro-growth, no-new-taxes philosophy.... [H]e has turned his back on many moderate and liberal friends who supported his re-election bid last year, shortchanging powerful labor unions who expected fiscal generosity in exchange for their endorsements....

...[H]e has alienated much of the coalition he so painstakingly assembled just months ago: His cuts to education have prompted protests from teachers’ union head Randi Weingarten, and his cuts to the budget for state hospitals and Medicaid have the powerful hospital-workers’ union, Local 1199, declaring that they will fight the Governor with all the considerable means at their disposal....

--New York Observer


Representative Tom DeLay, the House majority leader, yesterday disavowed an anti-union fund-raising letter that bears his signature after several union leaders condemned the letter because it accuses "big labor bosses" of seeking to expand their power at the expense of national security.

The letter, which raised money for the National Right to Work Legal Defense and Education Foundation, criticized "the union bosses' drive to use the national emergencies we face today to grab more power." It said this drive "presents a clear and present danger to the security of the United States."...

Before Mr. DeLay distanced himself from the letter, James P. Hoffa, the president of the Teamsters, the union most vigorously courted by Republicans, wrote him a letter saying, "This anti-union screed not only insults the 1.4 million members of this union, it offends me personally."

Mr. Hoffa added, "While I take umbrage to any statement that questions the patriotism of myself and the members of this union, I consider such an accusation a particular affront to our Teamster Brothers and Sisters who are called to active duty."

--New York Times

It's simple: Union leaders who support Republicans are regarded as useful idiots by the GOP. Democrats might not help unions much, but they do a little better than this.