Guess who’s coming to dinner – or maybe just an early brunch
Former Philadelphia Mayor and Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell dropped by Laura Ingraham’s radio program to talk politics late Monday morning. While discussing a number of issues, the liberal democrat and conservative republican mixed it up about Occupy Wall Street demonstrations in Philadelphia and several other cities.
The conversation quickly turned to a frequent topic of discussion on conservative talk radio, whether special interests such as Big Labor were co-opting the Occupy demonstrators.
Ingraham queried Rendell about his opinion of AFL-CIO head Richard Trumka and other union leaders appearing at the Occupy Wall Street rally in New York, “telling the protestors we’re here to support you. So I guess he wants to turn this into an electoral movement?”
“Sure,” the governor answered. “Probably a good analogy Laura was 1968 when someone finally channeled college kids’ energies into electoral politics. And they went up to New Hampshire and they put on ties and jackets and they went door to door, and they talked about the war. Gene McCarty got 43% of the vote and brought down Lyndon Johnson. So yeah, I guess think that’s what Rich Trumka’s trying to do.”
Rendell also shared his personal impression of participants at an Occupy Philadelphia protest, observing that the demonstrations would provide a short-term benefit in terms of publicity. He then emphasized that the Tea Party “understood how to make change” while expressing his concern that the protestors did not.
“You don’t think you’re going to bring about change in law by just sitting here? No legislative body is going to be blackmailed,” Rendell stated bluntly.
“I don’t agree with their methods. The guys in Philadelphia said we’re going to be here all winter. Well, that’s silly. You’ve made your point. You’ve gotten all the publicity you’re going to get. Get on with your lives…” he remarked.
Ingraham also mentioned ABC analyst George Will sardonically expressing hope that the demonstrations would continue as long as possible, as the Vietnam protests fueled the rise of Richard Nixon and resurrection of the Republican Party.
The governor responded by acknowledging the risk Occupy Wall Street posed for the Democrat party.
“The antiwar movement in ‘68 was doing well electorally until the convention in Chicago. And everything blew up in the convention in Chicago. And poor Hubert Humphrey had absolutely zero chance coming out of that convention because the protests turned ugly…”
“There is a risk here, there is a real risk here if it goes that way,” the governor conceded.
This is the first in a series of reports on Laura Ingraham’s interview with Governor Rendell. Subscribe to receive an email alert for the posting of the next report in this series.
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