"Roughshod" and "musclebound." That's how President Clinton last week described organized labor's lobbying tactics against lawmakers who support the free-trade agreement. Those ugly terms, which evoke old stereotypes of spaghetti-sucking Mob bosses and pistol-blazing hitmen, infuriated Ronald Carey, the leader of the 1.4 million-member International Brotherhood of Teamsters. He demanded that Clinton apologize for using "code words" that are "an insult to every working man and woman in America."
They may be insulting; they may also be true, at least as far as Carey himself is concerned. Outwardly, Carey is a zealous reformer who swept into office two years ago in...