Unions to Spend $53 Million in Anti-McCain Effort

I will be the among the first to defend the right of free expression that one has to support or oppose a political candidate of his or her choosing. But it is interesting to me that the AFL-CIO would spend $53 million on a program to defeat John McCain for the presidency.

Note that I said “interesting,” and not “surprising.”

That is quite a lot of money to spend. That’s quite a lot of money to have and to be able to spend. Especially when, as polls demonstrate, there is far from universal support among union members for the democratic candidates still in the race. Surely the membership of the unions that make up the AFL-CIO could think of more effective ways to spend $53 million – for example, on efforts that actually benefit members directly or that would be universally supported by the membership?