By Victor Skinner
EAGnews.org

OLYMPIA, Wash. – Effective union leaders know how to morph their message to fit what their current audience wants to hear.
    
Washington Education Association President Mary Lindquist provided a prime example this week when she spoke to the Associated Press about why the union endorsed Democrat Jay Inslee for governor.
 
“I think it’s pretty clear that we have a real priority in making sure that we get someone elected as governor who will put kids first,” Lindquist said Wednesday, according to Publicola.com.
 
The concern for “kids” is heartwarming, really, but just days earlier Lindquist pointed to a different and far more self-serving reason for supporting Inslee.
 
“Inslee answered our questionnaire, met with our WEA-PAC board members to answer questions and impressed everyone with his sincerity and thoughtfulness,” Lindquist wrote in a recent WEA newsletter, the news site reports.
 
“He has repeatedly said he will work with us. That is what he did as a member of Congress and what he has continued to do throughout his campaign. Inslee said again – before 3,000 contributors – that he believed in collective bargaining. He has repeatedly promised to protect our collective bargaining rights.”
 
Protecting collective bargaining is every union’s top priority, despite the fact that the process frequently conflicts with student and school district needs.
 
Washington GOP spokeswoman Meredith Kenny rightly pulled Lindquist’s pants down in a press release.
 
“In a newsletter that went out this past weekend to WEA members, not once … does Lindquist tell her fellow members that the WEA chose to endorse Jay Inslee because he was the right choice for Washington’s children – only that he is the right choice for the union,” Kenny wrote, according to Publicola.
 
The news site asked Lindquist about her doubletalk, and the union boss offered a lame excuse about how Inslee came in for a candidate interview while his opponent, Republican Rob McKenna, did not.
 
It’s like doubletalk déjà vu.