September 21, 2005

Mickey Kaus wonders whether it's really a good idea for Democrats and liberals to be rallying in defense of the "notorious" Davis-Bacon Act, which is meant to enforce union wage scales on government contractors, and which the President recently suspended in the Katrina reconstruction zone. Time was, after all, when the neoliberal Washington Monthly persuasively pushed for the elimination of the law. (That's nothing; we can remember when the Washington Monthly used to be great on liability reform, too.) And James Taranto amusingly notes that Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo has been crusading in favor of the union position on Davis-Bacon even as he advertises for internship help at a wage rate of $0.00, which manages to outdo in big-heartedness the wages the UFCW dispenses for picketing Wal-Mart.