Philly unions march

Against Republicans in general, and Mayor Nutter in particular:

THE RAIN came down hard and steady at times during the city’s 25th annual Labor Day parade Monday, but the downpours did nothing to dampen the fire and indignation felt by many marchers toward the Republican Party and their newest bogeyman – Mayor Nutter.

“Nutter the Dictator,” and “Nutter Doesn’t Negotiate He Dictates,” read signs that dozens of soggy union members carried while trooping down Columbus Boulevard toward a picnic at Penn’s Landing.

An estimated 5,000 union faithful and their families participated, representing about 50 unions, said Liz McElroy, the newly elected secretary-treasurer of Philadelphia Council AFL-CIO.

“I was really impressed by the number of people who came out in the rain,” she said, noting that city firefighters and sanitation workers are among the many union members who regularly work in inclement weather.

But this Labor Day, just two months before the presidential election, many of those city employees lumped Nutter in with national Republicans as an enemy of the labor movement and the middle class.

Nutter will be one of the speakers at the DNC this week.

This was always Nutter’s style (when he announced he was running for mayor, not one City Council member showed up at his press conference). He’s famous for not playing well with others and got the idea that politics shouldn’t involve actual politics — i.e. working out a compromise.

I remember him as the only one of five Democrats who said poverty and its effects would be a priority if he became mayor.