Puff Piece in WaPo on new AFL-CIO President Shredded

It's only going to be a matter of time before those who support the MSM begin to get victimized by the same entities they're championing. Chris Cillizza writes a Puff Piece Profile on new AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka and it's ripped apart by.............a Left Wing blog?

h/t to NewsBusters for uncovering the "selective reporting" uncovered by The New Republic.

Cillizza's profile of Trumka highlight's the latter's history as a uniter and not a divider when it comes to bringing groups togethery. In light of the current status of the AFL-CIO, such a man would be envied.

The long and short of it is that the AFL-CIO has lost member unions to a competitor called "Change to Win". The more well-known defectors are SEIU and Teamsters. Cillizza apparently had softballs dancing in his head at the keyboard because he never questioned, challenged, nor reported on Trumka's questionable past. In fact, what Cillizza did was akin to grilling an onion without taking off the dried, outer brown layer.

Quoting from John B. Judis' piece in New Republic...

The story (Cillizza's piece) fails to mention that Trumka himself was one of the reasons for the split. In 1996, James P. Hoffa ran for president of the Teamsters against the incumbent Ron Carey. Carey won the election, but the results were thrown out when federal officials discovered that Carey campaign people were illicitly using Teamster funds for his campaign. Carey’s campaign would send the money to individuals in other organizations ostensibly for other purposes and the individuals and organizations would arrange for the money to be donated back to the Carey campaign.

According to a statement made by Carey’s former campaign manager, Trumka and the AFL-CIO were involved in this money-laundering scheme. At Trumka’s request, $150,000 was sent to the AFL-CIO for get-out-the-vote efforts in the 1996 general election. The money was then sent to Citizen Action, a community organizing group, which passed it back to the Carey campaign. While Trumka was mentioned in the federal complaint, he was not indicted. And he refused to testify in the federal investigation on fifth amendment grounds. So nothing has been proven, but you would probably have a hard time finding a labor official – and particularly one at the Teamsters – who doesn’t believe Trumka was laundering money for Carey.

If there's any truth to this, being a fly on the wall of Hoffa's office while he's reading Cillizza's piece just might command a hefty premium.

Read Cillizza's piece for yourself.