Culture of Corruption: Obama and the Teamsters

Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa will be visiting Teamster worksites around the Philadelphia area on October 27-28 to help get out the vote for Sen. Barack Obama in this crucial presidential election, according to a press statement from the union's press office.

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Hoffa will meet with members at their job sites, discussing important issues affecting their lives and their families, including the country's financial crisis, the job-killing trade policies backed by Sen. John McCain, the failing Bush-McCain economy and affordable health care. Hoffa is the son of Teamsters honcho Jimmy Hoffa whose connections with organized crime are believed to have led to his disappearance. The Wall Street Journal recently reported that last summer, Illinois Senator Barack Obama told officials in the Teamsters union that he favored ending the Independent Review Board (IRB) that was created in 1989 by the federal government to rid the union of organized crime. Tommy Vietor, a spokesman for Obama, confirmed the story, saying that the candidate believed that the IRB had "run its course" because "organized crime influence in the union has drastically declined." The Teamsters subsequently endorsed Obama for president, in late February. Obama and the Teamsters bristled at suggestions that any deal was made. The Obama campaign also circulated a tape of a speech that Senator Hillary Clinton made last March to the Teamsters saying "at some point the past has to be opened," but Clinton's statement, like those made by Senator John Kerry in 2004, stopped well short of committing her to end oversight of the Teamsters. "So what do you expect from a Chicago politician," quips former NYPD detective Mike Snipes who investigated organized crime in the 1970s. "Obama wants to use the Teamsters as his foot-soldiers to get out the vote. The Teamsters want Obama to call off the watchdogs so they can return to their cozy relationship with organized crime," said the decorated detective.