A last-minute intra-labor war...

Change to Win, the powerful labor coalition backing Barack Obama, has just put out a scathing statement attacking AFSCME in response to our story below reporting that AFSCME had distributed a pro-Hillary flyer in Indiana that didn't clearly identify AFSCME as the author.

As I reported below, the leaflet concludes by saying: "This message brought to you by your union." So if it fell into the hands of a member of another union, even one supporting Obama, he or she could conclude that his or her own union was behind the pro-Hillary message.

Here's the statement from Change to Win's executive director, Greg Tarpinian...

"It's a shame that the discourse of the Democratic presidential primary campaign has sunk to the point of lying to our union brothers and sisters on the eve of the Indiana primary election. These deplorable and dishonest tactics undermine our democratic process and the hard work of thousands of Change to Win and other union members and volunteers working tirelessly to help make Sen. Barack Obama the 2008 Democratic presidential nominee. We expect these types of deplorable tactics from the McCain campaign, not AFSCME."

Pretty harsh stuff. As I reported below, the director of AFSCME council 62, Dave Warrick, argued that the union wasn't obliged to include the disclaimer, because the piece wasn't sent out as a mass mailing and was intended for distribution to AFSCME members only.

But he conceded it was possible that it could end up in the hands of non-AFSCME members.