By David J. Sanders

Prissy: “Mammy, here’s Miss Scarlett’s vittles.”
Scarlett: “You can take it all back to the kitchen; I won’t eat a bite.”
Mammy: “Yes’m you is, you’s gonna eat every mouthful of this.”
Scarlett: “No… I’m… NOT.”

— “Gone With the Wind”

Nothing is going to be easy for U.S. Sen. Blanche Lincoln. That is thanks to her new Democratic colleague, Sen. Arlen Specter, Running Scared—Penn., who is breathing new life into the Employee Free Choice Act, the bill that would make it much easier for workers to unionize.

Not so long ago, while she hemmed and hawed over her public position on the EFCA/card check measure, I advanced the argument that Arkansas’ most senior U.S. senator was satisfied ignoring the realities and consequences of her situation, a la Scarlett O’Hara.

For Mrs. Lincoln, the EFCA debate was a needless distraction that kept the U.S. Senate from focusing on job No. 1, which according to her was to get the economy moving. Then, a few weeks later, out of nowhere, Mrs. Lincoln told a crowded room of political types she wouldn’t be supporting the controversial labor-backed legislation.

Her opposition effectively killed the measure, but she left herself a tiny loophole claiming she couldn’t support the card check legislation in its “current form.” Her political opponents seized on her slightly cracked door, but it seemed like a desperate attempt to keep the issue alive.

Mrs. Lincoln said she wanted to move on, but it appears that’s not going to happen.

The New York Times reported Thursday that labor leaders and Senate Democrats are working on compromise legislation that would allow them to get the 60 needed to cut off debate.

As originally proposed, EFCA would require a company to recognize a union after a majority of workers signed union authorization cards in lieu of a secret ballot election. That card check element, called undemocratic by its opponents, served as a flash point. Business interests, Republicans and some Democrats claimed EFCA would open the door to union intimidation.

According to the Times, the compromise under discussion would keep the card check provision, but the cards would instead be mailed to the National Labor Relations Board. On Wednesday, Specter, who, like Lincoln, opposes the current EFCA legislation, told the Times that he was “prepared to work hard to find an answer to the issue.”

Since EFCA’s critics zeroed in on the undemocratic nature of the card check element, lost in the conversation has been the legislation’s provision to mandate binding arbitration by a federally appointed negotiator if a union and management couldn’t reach contract terms within 90 days. Business leaders admit that this provision is what has their allies worried most and the compromise currently being discussed does nothing address those concerns.

Thursday, former Democratic Sen. George McGovern, one of EFCA’s most vocal opponents, penned an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal in which he dealt head-on with compulsory arbitration.  McGovern, a liberal, who was the 1972 Democratic presidential nominee, blasted the provision as upsetting the “careful balance between the rights of businesses, unions and individual employees” that exists under current labor law.

“A federally appointed arbitrator cannot be expected to understand the nuances specific to each business dispute, the competitive market position of the business, or the plethora of other factors unique to each case. Yet fundamental decisions on wages and benefit costs, rules for promotions, or even rules for exiting an unprofitable line of business could fall to federal arbitrators under EFCA,” McGovern wrote.

Bottom line:  The debate Mrs. Lincoln so desperately wanted to go away has not; in fact, it seems to have intensified, which isn’t good news for her. Even with the addition of Specter, and the increased likelihood the Minnesota U.S. Senate seat will be awarded to comedian Al Franken, if Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is to move on EFCA, he will need every Democrat, including Mrs. Lincoln, to vote with him.

It looks like Reid and others want to make Sen. O’Hara eat her vittles.

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David J. Sanders writes twice weekly for the Arkansas News Bureau in Little Rock and is the host of Arkansas Education Television Network’s “Unconventional Wisdom.” His e-mail address is DavidJSanders@aol.com.