Keystone Pipeline Indecision and the President's Six Year Long Political "Punt" ... Private Sector Union Leader Tells It Like It Is

We need more jobs.


We need more high paying jobs.


We need more jobs in the private sector and fewer in the public sector.


We also need to pursue energy independence.


And national security.


We need to show Russia that their energy based bullying won't work to let them run the world.


We need greater economic growth, more income and taxes from that growth, and to accept the reality that a fossil fuel based energy policy has to be front and center for decades to come.


And we need to start telling the truth about why politics sucks. All of us.


Now a Democratic union leader and former Obama enthusiast has come forward to do just that --- speak the truth.


So let's hear what he has to say in Keystone Uncensored, which is appropriately subtitled "A labor leader calls the Administration 'gutless,' 'dirty' and more:"


"Republicans are denouncing President Obama's latest delay on the Keystone XL pipeline, six long years after it was proposed. But for cold political fury they have nothing on Terry O'Sullivan, who runs the Laborers' International Union that represents a half-million construction workers.

"This is once again politics at its worst," Mr. O'Sullivan said in a public statement that deserves to be quoted at length. "In another gutless move, the Administration is delaying a finding on whether the pipeline is in the national interest based on months-old litigation in Nebraska regarding a state level challenge to a state process—and which has nothing to with the national interest. They waited until Good Friday, believing no one would be paying attention. The only surprise is they didn't wait to do it in the dark of night.

Terry O'Sullivan, president of the Laborers' International Union of North America.            

"It's not the oil that's dirty, it's the politics. Once again, the Administration is making a political calculation instead of doing what is right for the country. This certainly is no example of profiles in courage. It's clear the Administration needs to grow a set of antlers, or perhaps take a lesson from Popeye and eat some spinach.

"This is another low blow to the working men and women of our country for whom the Keystone XL Pipeline is a lifeline to good jobs and energy security."

The pipeline is expected to create some 2,000 new jobs from construction and thousands more related to the project. Many of those jobs would go to Mr. O'Sullivan's union members, who do not live on San Francisco's Pacific Heights like billionaire donor Tom Steyer who opposes Keystone.

Mr. O'Sullivan may feel especially bitter because he and the Laborers twice endorsed Mr. Obama for President, calling him a leader "who will fight to create jobs." But he shouldn't be surprised now given that Mr. Obama was doing the Keystone delay and dodge routine throughout 2012. Union leaders whose members work in the private economy, not the government, should know by now that if they want Keystone approved they will need a Republican Senate."

Summing Up

Mr. O'Sullivan speaks the unvarnished truth.

Politics sucks.

And the games President Obama plays are dangerous to We the People --- all of us --- and our American economic well being and national security.


The rest of the world's too.

And since our private sector based fellow citizen and union leader has spoken so clearly and eloquently about the Keystone situation, that's all I have to say about that.

Thanks. Bob.