Kerry crosses picket fence

He may as well have, as over at the Captain's Quarters, Captain Ed shouts with glee:

In what appears to be yet another flip-flop, John Kerry reportedly crossed a picket line in Chicago to speak at a Rainbow-PUSH meeting...

First off, note the use of appears and reportedly. No real confirmation. But there is no need for any from a blogger, I guess.

He is of course talking about Kerry, who refused to cross a picket line of Boston's finest police and firefighters to speak at the Conference of Mayors. Knowing this is as close to striking as police and firemen can get, Kerry honored the union and declined to speak. Luckily someone with no such qualms jumped over the line.

Now last night Kerry spoke at the annual Rainbow-PUSH Coalition. According to this ABC Chicago affiliate article(quoted by Captain Ed), protestors were present.

Nearly a hundred African American demonstrators protested outside the Rainbow-PUSH Coalition. They accuse the Reverend Jesse Jackson of selling out the black community by allowing automotive giant Daimler Chrysler help underwrite the cost of the convention. The carmaker is accused in a lawsuit of subjecting black buyers to racially discriminatory sales policies and making derogatory racial comments about African Americans.

Ed says it is a picket line crossed, and Kerry flip flops. In reality, it boils down to a semantic argument. When Kerry said he never crosses a picket line, I took it to mean that he would never cross the line of a group of workers striking for reasons of pay, benefits, et al. In other words, Kerry would not cross a labor related picket line. Clearly the Rainbow-PUSH Coalition were not workers for anyone associated with the event, nor were they protesting their working conditions. They were against a non labor related issue. They were what the rest of the world calls protestors.

I expect to hear all about this on that daft Fox and Friends morning show.