Teamsters leader compares GOP to Cambodian dictator

[WestVirginiaRebel]

Detroit News:

Washington — Teamsters President James Hoffa on Thursday compared the Republican Party to genocidal Cambodian leader Pol Pot and likened the tea party to the John Birch Society.

In remarks before the National Press Club, the fiery Detroit-born leader in his fourth term of running the 1.4-million member union also said the future of organized labor is at stake.

He said the GOP at its national convention in Tampa, Fla., two weeks ago didn't talk about "what they really believe in" or highlight former leaders like President George W. Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin.

"The Republicans are rewriting history," Hoffa said, saying the party is ignoring Bush's eight years in office. "There is no eight years. There was no recession. There were no wars. Nothing every happened during those eight years."

The GOP wants to suggest "history began" with President Barack Obama and ignores all of the problems before 2009. "We're starting from Day One. It's like Pol Pot — basically start the Day One, the new calendars."

Pol Pot led the Khmer Rouge which was responsible for the deaths of about 2 million people in Cambodia.

Hoffa said the GOP has become "the far, far right."

He compared the tea party to the John Birch Society, the radical anti-Communist group that opposed civil rights legislation and wants to dismantle the Federal Reserve System and exit the United Nations.

"New John Birch Society — now it's called the tea party but it's basically again to go to a far-off place and roll the clock back to about 1890," Hoffa said.

Hoffa noted the attacks on public sector workers' rights to collective bargaining in states.

"There's a war on workers," Hoffa said. "We are the only ones standing in the way of this movement to turn the country to the far right. They're taking us on because they realize if they can knock out labor … they'll have a free run because we are the only ones that stand in the way."

Hoffa said unions are working hard to ensure the right to organize. "We really are fighting back," he said.

Opponents are out to destroy unions, Hoffa said.

"The right wing knows and believes that labor is the backbone of the Democratic (Party). … We are strong. We are organized. We have money and we have boots on the ground. "

Hoffa hopes the federal government will soon end an anti-corruption consent decree against the union that's been in place since 1989. "We've been working on this for a long time," Hoffa said. "We would like to see it lifted. We're talking to the government. … Our union is a clean union. There's no corruption in our union."

Compliance with the decree costs the union about $3 million to $4 million annually, money Hoffa would like to use for organizing new members.

"We're looking forward to settling our case," Hoffa said. "We're ready to enter into a very good settlement for both sides and both of us declare victory."

He also called for a constitutional amendment to overturn the Supreme Court's "Citizens United" decision that allows unlimited money to be spent on elections.

"Otherwise (the decision) is going to destroy America," Hoffa said, saying labor will be outspent 8 to 1. "We do not have enough money to do what we want with regard to this campaign."

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Well gee, I thought you guys had boots on the ground and were strong and organized.