What's at stake in the battle between public-employee unions and the GOP governors who are out to get them?

This is a power struggle between the GOP and the Democrats, pure and simple. Under a recent Supreme Court ruling, both corporations and unions are free to spend as much as they wish in political campaigns. The only organizations with serious money to benefit from this ruling on the Democratic side of the aisle are the big public unions. The GOP has the big corporations on their side. Bust the big unions and the Supreme Court's ruling becomes a total win for the wealthy. The case, a bit more than a year old now, comes with an enormous published opinion (more than 100),was decided 5-4 with lots of concurring and dissenting opinions:

Supreme Court of the United States
CITIZENS UNITED, Appellant,
v.
FEDERAL ELECTION COMMISSION.

No. 08-205.
Argued March 24, 2009.
Reargued Sept. 9, 2009.
Decided Jan. 21, 2010.

Background: Nonprofit corporation brought action against Federal Election Commission (FEC) for declaratory and injunctive relief, asserting that it feared it could be subject to civil and criminal penalties if it made through video-on-demand, within 30 days of primary elections, a film regarding a candidate seeking nomination as a political party's candidate in the next Presidential election. The United States District Court for the District of Columbia, A. Raymond Randolph, Circuit Judge, and Royce C. Lamberth and Richard W. Roberts, District Judges, 2008 WL 2788753, denied corporation's motion for preliminary injunction and granted summary judgment to Commission. Probable jurisdiction was noted.


Holdings: The Supreme Court, Justice Kennedy, held that:
(1) government may not, under the First Amendment, suppress political speech on the basis of the speaker's corporate identity, overruling Austin v. Michigan Chamber of Commerce, 494 U.S. 652, 110 S.Ct. 1391, 108 L.Ed.2d 652;
(2) federal statute barring independent corporate expenditures for electioneering communications violated First Amendment, overruling McConnell v. Federal Election Com'n, 540 U.S. 93, 124 S.Ct. 619, 157 L.Ed.2d 491;
(3) disclaimer and disclosure provisions of Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 did not violate First Amendment, as applied to nonprofit corporation's film and three advertisements for the film.

There is little doubt that with trillions of dollars in unfunded, vested pension and health benefits on the (red) books of the 50 states, something needs to be done to get public employees off this gravy train before it derails and explodes.

On the other hand, using this fiscal crisis as an excuse to geld the last giants of organized labor is duplicitous and and just plain wrong. At a time when the gap between the rich and poor in this country is widening, and the middle class is eroding, organized labor may be more important to the welfare of the nation than at any time since the Great Depression.

Resetting the proper balance is the best solution. But balance isn't something we Americans are into these days, is it? Moderation in politics is in disrepute and disfavor. And that's a shame... a costly shame in my opinion.