AND NOW THE OTHER NUTS – AT 8:55 A.M. ET:  We reported earlier this morning on the right-wing sniping against Senator Scott Brown of Massachusetts, whose ideological cleanliness is under attack from the GOP Purity and Goodness Police.  But let us not forget that most of the P&G police that we've seen are in the other party, walking their beats zealously every day.  From the Washington Times:

While conservatives and "tea party" activists have made headlines pressuring Republican candidates from the right this election season, a number of moderate Democrats are under attack in primary battles and even third-party challenges from their labor allies on the left.

The AFL-CIO and other labor groups have been a mainstay of the Democratic coalition, but have not always seen eye to eye with the Obama administration or with a number of centrist Democrats - differences highlighted in the lengthy battle over health care, in debates over education reform, and in stalled efforts to change key labor laws.

In Arkansas, the AFL-CIO is openly working to defeat incumbent Sen. Blanche Lincoln, an opponent of the health bill's public option plan, in the May 18 Democratic primary. Hawaii labor unions have broken with the national Democratic Party over which candidate to back in a special House election, giving Republicans an opening to win the seat. And in North Carolina, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) is helping to form a third party designed in part to challenge state Democratic lawmakers who voted against the health care law.

COMMENT:  That's really bright – dividing the Democratic Party in a Republican year. 

We have no problem with honest labor unions here, but this kind of zealotry just doesn't work.  But, if the leftist Dems want to self-destruct, more power to them.  We'll send them instruction manuals, crayons for painting signs...and the names and addresses of their new Republican senators and representatives.

It's been many decades since Franklin Roosevelt would order, "Clear it with Sidney," a reference to Sidney Hillman, a key labor leader of the 1930s.  Unions are trying to regain political power, but simply haven't got the strength in numbers to do so.  They may be overplaying their hand in some of these primary battles, and the Dems won't appreciate the kind of interference that can elect the opposition in November.

April 15, 2010