Duty

Watch Ted Kennedy give the Senate Reptilicans and their Dear Leader hell for daring to suggest the right of collective bargaining for health benefits and other grievances would make the homeland less secure.

The White House has threatened to veto a critical 9/11 Commission security bill if it includes legislation giving federal airport screeners collective bargaining rights and whistle-blower protections.

Senate conservatives have argued that providing basic workers’ rights to TSA employees endangers our national security. “It’s absolutely absurd,” said Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC). “Terrorists don’t go on strike. Terrorists don’t call their union to negotiate before they attack.”

Today on the Senate floor, Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA) ripped into the right wing for suggesting that our first-line defenders would sacrifice America’s security. “What is it about the other side that questions that these are men and women of dignity that will do their job when this nation is threatened?” he said. “As the smoke was coming out of the buildings in New York, when we saw the collapse of the first buildings and men and women under collective bargaining agreements were asked to go into those fiery infernos, no one was talking about collective bargaining agreements! They were talking about doing their duty to the United States of America...”

...The good news: the Senate held the line and voted 51-48 to approve the workers’ protections.