Aug 26, 2010

Union head: Sarah Palin is another Joe McCarthy

12:41 PM

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka delivered a speech Thursday that blasted Sarah Palin and claimed that her campaign language comes close to calling for violence. In this Aug. 4 file photo, President Obama stands Trumka following a speech about jobs and the economy at the AFL-CIO Executive Council in Washington. on Aug. 4. CAPTIONBy Charles Dharapak, APThe head of the powerful AFL-CIO union is set to give a speech today in Anchorage that denounces Sarah Palin and charges that her language skirts dangerously close to calling for violence against elected officials.


In a speech released to journalists, union President Richard Trumka said the 2008 vice presidential nominee will "go down in history like McCarthy. Palinism will become an ugly word."

Trumka took issue with Palin's use of crosshairs on a map to illustrate lawmakers she has targeted for defeat, along with her calls for supporters to "reload" rather than "retreat" in the face of opposition.

"In this charged political environment, her kind of talk gets dangerous," Trumka said in written remarks scheduled to be delivered at the union's biennial convention. "She's getting close to calling for violence. And some of her fans take that stuff seriously. We've got legislators in America who have been living with death threats since the health care votes."

Updated at 1:20 p.m. ET: Palin offered this response via her Twitter account:


Think Trumka's frustrations r w/Obama, not me (high unemplymnt, deals w/Obama&his subsequent broken promises)so understandable Rich's ticked

http://content.usatoday.com/communities ... PageReturn