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Recent Editorials |
Equal Pay: An Obama Play for Iowa?by Josh Gerstein
One of our colleagues over at the Politico, Ben Smith, notes that Senator Obama of Illinois has embraced a robust equal pay law that would have the government determine the relative worth of various occupations and insist that the pay for those jobs be equalized if members of a particular race or gender predominate in the lesser-paid positions. The most salient fact here may be that such legislation has been championed for years by Senator Harkin of Iowa. Mr. Obama would love to have Mr. Harkin's endorsement in the presidential contest. While the Iowa senator is unlikely to snub Senator Clinton that way, Mr. Obama's legislative cozying-up to Mr. Harkin can't hurt the Illinois senator's efforts to line up the operatives and endorsements needed to mount a decent showing in the early and still-important Iowa caucuses.Moderate Democrats have been slow to embrace Mr. Harkin's legislation because it would involve a substantial additional intrustion by the federal courts into the job market, though, in fairness, the camel's nose is well into that tent already. Mr. Obama's endorsement of the Fair Pay Act becomes a rare issue where the Illinois senator stands to the left of the major contenders for the Democratic nomination. This may suit Senator Clinton fine, but will gall John Edwards, who has been trying to lay claim to the party's left flank. I wouldn't be surprised to see Mr. Edwards put out word shortly that he, too, is on board with Mr. Harkin's approach.
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