Former Obama Aides Broke With Democratic Firm Over Anti-Teachers Union Project
WASHINGTON -- Every day throughout the summer of 2006, seemingly without end, things just kept getting worse for Washington Republicans. Iraq was spiraling out of control, President George W. Bush was at the depth of his unpopularity. Congressional Republicans were mired in scandal. One was even caught sending dirty instant messages to young boys.
What followed was the Democratic wave of 2006, which handed Congress to Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi, followed by a second wave ridden by Barack Obama into the White House. Pundits talked about the end of the Republican Party, or at best, a permanent rump status.
"I remember this point in Bush's presidency. I kept a list of Cook and Rothenberg's 'toss up' races. That list tripled in six months from January," said one GOP operative who wondered where his place in the permanently Democratic Washington would be.
Eight years later, he's surprised by the answer: Fighting alongside former Obama administration officials against a common enemy -- labor unions. He's referring to former top White House aides Robert Gibbs and Ben LaBolt, who have signed on to battle teachers unions in a series of lawsuits across the country, aligning themselves with Republican operatives who no longer worry the Obama whiz kids and their army of small donors will wipe them off the map.
"We are about to hold more House seats than we ever have. We will take the Senate," said the GOP official, who asked not to be named to preserve his business options. "The future is bright for us. Shit, we may even take on the teachers unions with Obama campaign operatives-turned-lobbyists."
Through their firm, The Incite Agency, Labolt and Gibbs are supporting former CNN anchor Campbell Brown's fight against teacher tenure. Brown is wading into education politics through a group she calls the Partnership for Education Justice, which aims to tackle teachers' work protections by taking the fight to court. A week ago, her group filed a lawsuit in New York state that organized local families as Former Obama Aides Broke With Democratic Firm Over Anti-Teachers Union Project: