A lot of labor-types will be unhappy that Andy Stern told the Washington Post editorial board that card check might not pass and unions might need to find an acceptable compromise. But I find it heartening. Card check almost certainly won't pass this Congress. You can't do it through reconciliation, Specter was the likeliest Republican supporter and he defected, and conservative Democrats like Webb and Lincoln are now talking the legislation down. Making card check the only bill that labor will support -- denying, in other words, the possibility of compromise -- might slightly increase its chances of passage, but only from extremely unlikely to very unlikely. Opening up the subject of compromise, however, makes it more likely that labor will end the year with some sort of victory rather than a very noble defeat.
