Mitt Romney: I like unions, but not card check

Mitt Romney lays out the case against card check in his new op-ed for the Washington Times, by building a theoretical framework centered around charter schools in Massachusetts.

For conservatives, it's a particularly powerful example, because if Card Check + Teachers' Unions + Charter Schools + Massachusetts can't = Get off my chair and call local X, nothing will.

Here's the cash in Romney's piece:

Conservatives like me are opposed to card check, but not to unions. At their best, labor unions have always fought for the rights of workers, and generations of Americans have been better off for it. But the card-check proposal is not an example of unions at their best - it is a case of union organizers rewriting the rules at the expense of working people.

The GOP needs to hit repeat on this song. Republicans are not opposed to labor unions -- they're just opposed to labor union bosses. And the two are entirely different beasts. Well -- one is a beast; the other often its unwitting accomplice.

Coupling his argument with charter schools is another That Fits angle. Americans are chronically wary of teachers' unions in theory, but practically, know too many to put up much of a tea party fight.

So Romney's onto something here -- distinguish the union from the bosses, and go for card check's throat.

[Hat tip: Glen Warchol]