Over at the Great Big Onanism Revue, Dave3544 has expressed his doubts that the Democrats in the Senate will pass the bill calling for unionization of the TSA. Actually, he's offered a bet a 4 to 1 odds that the Senate won't pass the bill.
Don't throw away your money!
Legislative cowardice or no, it seems to me that giving Bush a chance to veto TSA unionization wouldn't be good politics. It's clear from the NY Times article linked above (and yesterday), that the Republicans have the votes to sustain the veto. So passing the TSA unionization bill won't accomplish anything concrete, but will instead be a symbolic gesture.
That's not bad in itself. There's nothing wrong with symbolic gestures as such, and the principle at stake here -- that every worker should have the right to engage in substantive collective bargaining -- is a good one, and well worth defending symbolically and otherwise.
The problem is that defending that principle by taking a stand on this issue gives the Republicans a chance to make a symbolic gesture of their own. That is, it lets the Republicans make speeches about their commitment to national security, speeches in which they take shots at Democrats for caring more about the concerns of special interests than about defending the homeland.
Why give the Republicans that rhetorical opportunity? Especially when there are better bills out there?
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