But he's "not an ideologue": Obama to name SEIU Chief Andy Stern, architect of the trillion-dollar pension shortfall, to 'deficit commission'

Michelle Malkin and Marathon Pundit point us to an ominous Washington Post disclosure: Barack Obama may name one of the most despicable characters in American economic history to the so-called 'deficit commission'. Its charter, presumably, is to tell Barack Obama how to create new taxes for his deficit-tripling shortfalls in federal revenue.

Malkin has documented, in copious detail, the culture of corruption endemic to Stern and the SEIU. The Los Angeles Times, for instance, reported that one of Stern's top lieutenants embezzled hundreds of thousands of dollars in members' hard-earned dues funds and, the paper asserts, Stern helped cover up the crime.

Furthermore, the SEIU is one of the chief contributors to the states' budget woes. The Pew Research Center puts the states' public sector union pension shortfall at roughly one trillion dollars. Who will make up that gap? The rank-and-file SEIU members and the taxpayers, to be sure.

Even before Barack Obama was elected President, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) was one of the most powerful labor groups in the land. Its two million members were levied taxes in the form of dues, most of which were then funneled into Democratic campaign coffers. Nearly half of its members are government employees.

Some reports indicate that the SEIU contributed $27 million to Barack Obama's campaign. Other media outlets describe the SEIU's $80 million overall stimulus package for Democratic candidates in 2008 with additional plans to spend tens of millions more in support of socialized medicine and "card check" instant unionization proposals.

Since Obama's election, the SEIU's power has grown stronger and its antics more outrageous. SEIU President Andy Stern is reported to have been the "SEIU official" who attempted to broker a deal between Rod Blagojevich and the White House over Obama's Senate seat. In the transcript released by federal law enforcement officials, the "SEIU official" offered to "send up a flare" to determine whether an SEIU 501(c)(4) group could be used to reward Blagojevich.

The fact that Barack Obama would name a man like Stern to this kind of commission shows that (a) he is indeed a hard-core ideologue; and (b) he doesn't give a gnat's crap about any budget deficits.

After all, you can never waste a good crisis.