Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is calling out the “thuggery” of Teamsters union President Jimmy Hoffa, Jr., who on Monday described tea partiers and congressional Republicans as “sons of bitches” and called for a war against them.
“Please don’t be taken in by union bosses’ thuggery like Jim Hoffa represented yesterday,” Palin wrote in a message posted on her Facebook on Tuesday.
“Union bosses like this do not have your best interests at heart,” she wrote. “What they care about is their own power and re-electing their friend Barack Obama so he will take care of them to the detriment of everyone else.”
Palin’s comments come in response to remarks Hoffa made before Obama’s Labor Day address in front of union workers in Detroit. Hoffa riled up the audience by saying: “’President Obama, this is your army. We are ready to march. Let’s take these sons of bitches out and take America back to where we belong … We gotta keep an eye on the battle that we face, a war on workers, and you see it everywhere in the tea party.”
In her message, Palin wrote, “To the same degree Americans are concerned about irresponsible, greedy corporate execs who got cushy bonuses from taxpayer-funded bailouts, we should also be concerned about greedy union bosses who are willing to tank our economy just to protect their own power.”
“As union history shows, power and greed corrupt,” she continued. “Just because you claim to represent union members doesn’t mean you are on the side of the angels. The greed of too many of these union bosses has all but destroyed the labor movement in this country, helped chase away our jobs, and is killing the American dream.”
Palin prefaced her remarks by stressing that she’s not anti-union, but against the behavior exhibited by people like Hoffa.
“What I say now, I say as a proud former union member and the wife, daughter, and sister of union members,” she wrote. “So, as a former card-carrying IBEW sister married to a proud former Laborers, IBEW, and later USW member, please hear me out.”