Another Republican "Dance of Death"

Worse than the proud Party of No, republicans are proving themselves the Party of Death. Through lack of health care, through cut-off unemployment benefits, through poisoning the entire Gulf Coast with gushing oil, through killing Social Security, through rejecting any jobs bill, through protecting criminal bankers, and most recently through coal mine un-safety, repugs are all about finding new ways - or defending old ways - to kill working people.

At FireDogLake, Bruce Vail is covering the congressional hearings on new mine safety regulations:

There seemed to be an otherworldly presence in the hearing room Tuesday when a Congressional committee began formal consideration of new coal mine safety legislation.

I was physically far away, watching on C-SPAN, so I couldn’t tell whether the unseen spirits were the ghosts of the 29 miners killed three months ago in a preventable explosion at the Upper Big Branch Mine in West Virginia — or the malignant aura of corporate power that seems to haunt the halls of Congress.

Whatever the source of that oppressive presence, Rep. George Miller (D-CA) seemed determined to cut through any fear and superstition. He made clear that he intends to use his post as chairman of the Committee on Education and Labor to propel ambitious new safety legislation through the House. Backed by the Obama administration and organized labor, Miller aims to strengthen the power of federal regulators to shutter unsafe mines, and to punish the corporate entities that own and operate dangerous coal pits. Further, he would extend new protections to the miners themselves, and broaden those protections to millions of other workers outside the coal fields.

Miller leaned heavily on organized labor for support at Tuesday’s hearing, especially from the United Mine Workers of America (UMW).

One of the principal witnesses, for example, was Joe Main, a thirty-year veteran of the UMW safety office. He was chosen last year by the White House as chief of the Department of Labor’s Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA). Also testifying in favor of the bill was the fierce UMW leader Cecil Roberts, who has led the union since former president Rich Trumka was elected to high AFL-CIO office in 1995.

The most powerful testimony was provided by Stanley “Goose” Stewart, a working miner who survived the deadly Upper Big Branch blast. A long-time UMW activist. He spoke forcefully of the union’s failed organizing efforts at Massey Energy Inc., the notorious owner of the Upper Big Branch Mine, and of the fear and intimidation of workers inspired by Massey. Even an independent academic expert – Professor R. Larry Grayson of Penn State – proudly identified himself as a former UMW member.

If Miller and the UMW men sought to honor the ghosts of Upper Big Branch, then it was the Republicans who wanted to banish them.

Rep. John Kline (R-MN), the ranking member of committee, blithely implied that it was Joe Main and his MSHA staff that were responsible for the West Virginia disaster. His most concrete suggestion was that lawmakers delay any action until multiple investigations of the Montcoal disaster are complete, a process that could take a year or more (at least past the mid-term elections). Kline’s muted opposition has already been echoed on the Senate side of Capitol Hill, where two Republicans – Mike Enzi of Wyoming and Johnny Isakson of Georgia – have taken the lead in opposing new worker safety legislations.

It is a delicate dance of death for the Republicans and the corporate lobbyists seeking to delay or defeat Miller’s legislation.

Read the whole thing here.

Then call or email your members of Congress and tell them to reject the repug Dance of Death - not just on coal mine safety, but on everything.