Paying their union dues

Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards each received warm welcomes from a 2,000-strong labor audience this morning in Washington. But, along with delivering speeches, each also had to parry a few questions from MSNBC's Chris Matthews before they could leave the podium.

The Times' Peter Nicholas reports from the scene that Matthews tried to get Clinton to weigh in on whether she supported a pardon for Scooter Libby, the former aide to Vice President Dick Cheney recently convicted of prejury. But Clinton didn't want to go there, and the audience --- members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union --- didn't want Matthews to keep trying to pin her down on their time. Hecklers opined that he should ask a better question, causing him to glare at the crowd and let it drop. Clinton, for her part, congratulated them for leaving the voluble Matthews speechless.

Matthews was more successful in drawing Clinton out about North American Free Trade, the controversial trade pact that her husband, as president, pushed through Congress.

"Like anything, NAFTA had some positives, but unfortunately had a lot of downside," she said. "We see that especially in the loss of jobs going south to Mexico ... But we're also now seeing it with the loss of jobs going north."

Clinton's campaign rhetoric more and more has been echoing union concerns about trade agreements. But it remains a tricky issue for her. Much of her brain trust for domestic policy, after all, remains dominated by those from Bill Clinton's administration --- the folks who gave us NAFTA.

Obama was on his game in his address, sparking an especially effusive response from the crowd, according to Nicholas. 

Matthews told Obama that his ability to inspire an audience reminded him of Robert Kennedy, the former New York senator assassinated in Los Angeles as he vied for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1968. Harkening back to those days, the news show host asked Obama where he fit on the party's spectrum, wondering whether he was a traditional liberal like Hubert Humphrey, who won the '68 nomination.

Obama responded with a practical, rather than visionary, answer: "I love Hubert Humphrey but he didn't win the presidency so I'm not going to be like that."

-- Don Frederick