The Touching Tale Of Labor And Scott Brown

Sometimes, the pathetic dysfunction of politics unfolds on such a masterful arc, it seems the work of a playwrite, or short-story author. I'm not sure whether this one is comedy or tragedy, but consider:

--Organized labor in Massachusetts had a true-blue, loyal, lunch-bucket union guy ready to go in the special Senate election in congressman Stephen Lynch.

--Labor activists booed Lynch at a health care rally, and labor leaders backed Martha Coakley, driving Lynch out of the race.

--Local and national labor groups, assuming general-election victory, put very little into the Coakley general-election effort until they realized she was losing.

--Meanwhile, Brown made a concerted effort to woo the rank-and-file, lunch-bucket union guys, and played up their support -- for example, by sending around photos of purple-clad SEIU members showing up to events, and even touting his own Screen Actors Guild membership.

--Those rank-and-file union members (who surely would have elected Lynch in the general election) broke with leadership, with half voting for Scott Brown, according to the AFL-CIO.

--Scott Brown vowed to be an independent voice and not a rubber-stamp 41st obstructionist vote for Senate Republicans; however, after agreeing to a 2/11 swearing-in date, Brown suddenly demanded to take his seat immediate today in order to be the 41st obstructionist vote for Senate Republicans.

--The key, crucial vote that Brown is demanding to be seated for? Why, to block the confirmation of a pro-labor nominee for the National Labor Relations Board. Naturally.

And, for the denouement, Senate Democrats are agreeing to change the schedule that Brown had agreed to, so as to allow him to block the nomination. Oh, the delicious, disgusting ironies that abound! Don't you just love politics?