AFSCME: I thought Obama rejected public campaign financing?

AFSCME (American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees) and others have launched an ad campaign against the GOP leadership. It was apparently coordinated with the White House:

White House aides were told in advance what the concept of the ads would be, though they were briefed while the ad was in production, according to a Democrat familiar with the discussions.

Let's set aside whether that's legal, for a moment. Instead, please note that tax money is explicitly paying for these ads. The AFSCME union is funded by the paychecks of government employees.

We shouldn't be surprised by the campaign -- after all, the "stimulus" package is largely intended to fund unions, either at the federal or state level. So what we have is taxpayer money being used to advertise for more taxpayer money, by the people who will be receiving that money.

Now, the coordination with the White House raises an eyebrow: after all, candidate Obama rejected public financing and instead went free-market for his campaign donations. Now he is the beneficiary of public money being used to promote his political goals. Ironic.

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Update: apparently the AFSCME folks are a little miffed about a parody video "that portrays AFSCME union members as 1970s-era goons". I dunno, what do you say about an organization that forcibly collects dues from non-members?

Comments

[Tom Chambers]

Did Obama take union money during the campaign?

And that can't be legal. 527s aren't supposed to coordinate with candidates ... instead of swiftboaters and we call them trash-huckers?

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