OBAMA CAMP PUSHBACK ON UNION STORY

http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/05/05/981689.aspx

Posted: Monday, May 05, 2008 12:41 PM by Mark Murray
Filed Under: 2008, Obama

From NBC's Mark Murray
Earlier today, we clipped this Wall Street Journal piece, which asserted that "Obama won the endorsement of the Teamsters earlier this year after privately telling the union he supported ending the strict federal oversight imposed to root out corruption." We even asked this question: Quid pro quo?

However, Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor tells First Read that Obama told the Teamsters his position on ending the government's oversight of the union back in the summer of 2007 -- but the Teamsters didn't endorse Obama until February 20.

Vietor also passes along a 2004 clip from Crain's Chicago Business, which suggests that Obama favored lifting the government's oversight of the Teamsters back then.

Finally, per Politico's Ben Smith, it seems Clinton also believes that the oversight has run its course. Here's what she said in March: "I am of the opinion that based on what I’ve seen over years of observation, this union has really done a tremendous job in turning itself around. That’s my observation. At some point the past has to be opened. If you screw up in the future, that’ll be a new day, right? That’s the way the system works. But you gotta -- you can’t go around dragging the ball and chain of the past. And I think that’s true for anybody, any organization, any individual, you know, and so I would be very open to looking at that and to saying, what is it we’re trying to accomplish here? And seeing what the answers were because at some point turn the page and go on."

We need to regulate business more and unions less. If the Teamsters don't mess up, why regulate them? Isn't their membership supposed to regulate them?