UNIONS AND CARD-CHECK M.I.A. AT DEMS' FIRST DEBATE

Notwithstanding the previous enthusiastic stumping done by the Democratic front-runners for the party's Presidential nomination, there was not a single question at last night's televised debate regarding the state of labor relations in the American economy. Not one question about the Employee Free Choice Act -- the AFL-CIO's "No. 1 priority" -- or about the significance of organized labor to our economy.

Only former Senator John Edwards (D-NC) even made reference to labor unions, a primary Democratic electoral constituency:

I am proud of what I've been doing for the last few years. You know, I've been all over the country, organizing workers into unions and raising the minimum wage, and also working at a poverty center at the University of North Carolina.

And that was in response to a question about his personal lucrative legal representation of hedge funds, not regarding national economic or labor policy.

Indeed, Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) declined to take a pro-union swing at a softball opportunity on Wal-Mart:

Well, because when Wal-Mart started, it brought goods into rural areas, like rural Arkansas where I was happy to live for 18 years, and gave people a chance to stretch their dollar further.

As they grew much bigger, though, they have raised serious questions about the responsibility of corporations and how they need to be a leader when it comes to providing health care and having, you know, safe working conditions and not discriminating on the basis of sex or race or any other category.

You know, this is all part, though, of how this administration and corporate America today don't see middle class and working Americans. They are invisible. They don't understand that if you're a family that can't get health care, you are really hurting.

But to the corporate elite and to the administration in the White House, you're invisible.

If you can't afford college, you're invisible.

Nothing about the oft-peddled accusations of anti-union behavior by the retail giant. Nothing about the frequently repeated, but rarely supported, plain statement that union organizing is the key to empowering the middle class. Nothing about the horrendous special-interest payback bill they are all hoping becomes law without any debate.