One month ago, House speaker Newt Gingrich responded to the National Right to Work Committee’s questionnaire for congressional candidates. The first question was: Would he “co-sponsor and seek roll-call votes on legislation to repeal the provisions in federal laws which authorize compulsory union dues?” Gingrich said “yes.”
But, a few days later Newt said just the opposite in a letter. As much as he likes the legislation, Gingrich declared, it “does not have the support necessary to pass in the House, and it would be foolish to schedule a vote that is sure to fail.”
What’s going on here? It certainly wasn’t the can’t-pass litmus test that prompted Gingrich — and Majority Leader Dick Armey — to refuse to bring the right-to-work bill to the floor. When James Dobson of Focus on the Family came to Washington and leaned on congressional Republicans, they quickly knuckled under and agreed to take up a series of bills favored by social conservatives, some of which have no chance of passage. And when business groups landed on Republicans for slighting their agenda, Gingrich hastily promised to push for a capital-gains tax cut, most-favored-nation trading status for China, renewed IMF funding, and fast-track trade legislation. Of course, fast track won’t pass IMF funds are iffy.
So why the double standard? The answer is that Gingrich and GOP leaders meekly respond to pressure, and the National Right to Work Committee hasn’t yet exerted as much as Dobson and the business community.
It soon may, however. The committee has collected 550,000 signatures on a petition demanding a vote on the bill, and it’s planning TV ads. It’s also adept at flooding Congress with telephone calls from right-to-work advocates.
The committee has no illusions about winning a vote this year. It simply wants a recorded vote so it can target those who back compulsory unionism. Some of them are moderate Republicans, whom Gingrich and Armey would like to protect. Armey wants their votes in his race to succeed Gingrich as speaker. In that vein, he suggested a solution to the right-to-workers. Get Appropriations Committee chairman Bob Livingston to attach the bill to a spending measure. Livingston is Armey’s chief rival for speaker and doesn’t want to alienate moderates either.
It’s hard to see why Republicans are so worried. The issue — banning coercive union membership and dues — is a popular one. And the right-to-work committee is influential with the party’s conservative base. Why not a vote?
