Art imitating life, Washington style
Some TV occupants of the White House are getting in the middle of the high-stakes fight over a bill that would make it easier for unions to organize.
Today, actors from "The West Wing" will join workers and members of Congress to unveil a new ad and grassroots campaign called “Faces of the Employee Free Choice Act."
Then, the actors -- Martin Sheen, Bradley Whitford, and Richard Schiff -- will join in lobbying on Capitol Hill for the legislation, according to the labor coalitions pushing it.
UPDATE: "It's a human rights issue," Sheen, who played president Josiah Bartlet, said, according to the Associated Press. "It's just bottom line fair that workers should be paid for their labor fairly."
Whitford, a union member and board member of the pro-labor group American Rights at Work, said he was behind the event. "I call this process celebrity lubrication," Whitford joked to reporters.
The pro-business Workforce Fairness Institute responded with this missive: “Today’s event on Capitol Hill with actors who played fictional political powerbrokers addressing a fictional problem is like a work of fiction that would be better suited for a comedy if their proposed ‘solution’ wasn’t so devastating to our nation’s economy,” said Katie Packer, executive director of the Workforce Fairness Institute. “Job creators don’t need policy prescriptions from out-of-touch, Hollywood elite who want to drive up costs and encourage a hostile takeover of American small businesses.”
About Political Intelligence
Glen Johnson is Politics Editor at boston.com and lead blogger for "Political Intelligence." He moved to Massachusetts in the fourth grade, and has covered local, state, and national politics for over 25 years. E-mail him at johnson@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @globeglen. |




Glen Johnson is Politics Editor at boston.com and lead blogger for "Political Intelligence." He moved to Massachusetts in the fourth grade, and has covered local, state, and national politics for over 25 years. E-mail him at 


