Hoffa compares GOP to Cambodian dictator

By David Shepardson 

The Detroit News 

Washington Bureau

Washington — Teamsters President James Hoffa on Thursday compared the recent Republican Party convention's downplaying of the Bush administration to Cambodian leader Pol Pot, who infamously wiped from history books anything that happened before he rose to power.

In remarks before the National Press Club, the fiery Detroit-born union leader, in his fourth term running the 1.4-million member organization, also likened the tea party to the anti-Communist John Birch Society.

He said the GOP at its national convention in Tampa, Fla., two weeks ago didn't talk about "what they really believe in" or highlight former leaders such as President George W. Bush.

"The Republicans are rewriting history," Hoffa said, saying the party is ignoring Bush's eight years in office. "There was no recession. There were no wars. Nothing ever happened during those eight years," he said.

The GOP wants to suggest "history began" with President Barack Obama and ignores all of the problems before 2009."

"And none of the things that George Bush did during his time — with (financial bailout), Lehman Brothers, and the collapse of Wall Street — that never happened," Hoffa said "It's like Pol Pot — basically start (from) the Day One, the new calendars."

Despot Pol Pot led the Khmer Rouge in the late 1970s. Under his rule, he forced city dwellers to work in the countryside under a program to restart the country's history at "Year Zero," according to the New World Encyclopedia. His policies led to the deaths of about 2 million Cambodians.

Hoffa said the GOP has become "the far, far right" and he compared the tea party to the John Birch Society, which opposed civil rights legislation, wants to dismantle the Federal Reserve System and wants the U.S. out of the United Nations.

"New John Birch Society — now it's called the tea party, but it's basically again to go to a far-off place and roll the clock back to about 1890," Hoffa said.

A spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee in Michigan rebutted Hoffa.

"As President Obama has conceded, under his leadership we are not better off than we were four years ago," Kelsey Knight said. "The middle class has gotten crushed under the Obama economy, and we deserve better from our president and his allies than more false, negative attacks designed to cover up his failed record of high unemployment, falling incomes, and out-of-control spending and debt.".

Hoffa also said there's a war on collective bargaining rights.

"They're taking us on because they realize if they can knock out labor … they'll have a free run because we are the only ones that stand in the way," he said.

"We have money and we have boots on the ground. "

dshepardson@detnews.com

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