Eastwood's 'Empty Chair' Speech Gets Under Big Labor's Skin, Provokes Violent Reaction

The Politico, in its report on what turned out to be the center-right's "Empty Chair Day," covered the reaction of one prominent member of organized labor to Clint Eastwood's supposedly horrible (if you believe leftist pundits) speech at the Republican National Convention.

If it was really that awful, they would be taking pity on Clint. Instead, they're getting hostile, meaning that the Hollywood Academy Award winner really got under their skin, as seen in an understated report by the online web site's Tim Mak and Juana Summers (bolds are mine througout this post):

AFSCME President Lee Saunders, capping off a fiery speech to the Wisconsin delegation Monday morning, held a conversation with an invisible Eastwood.

An empty chair had been brought on stage before Saunders started speaking, but he ignored it for most of his speech.

“I don’t know if you noticed, but you see this chair? I don’t know if you noticed that he actually walked in with me. He’s invisible, he’s sitting right here. He’s been listening to everything I had to say,” Saunders said. “So I want you to welcome Clint Eastwood.”

“I’ve got a couple of questions. I’ve got a couple of questions I want to ask Clint Eastwood,” Saunders continued as dozens of attendees cracked up. “But first, buddy, what do you have to say for yourself? I didn’t hear you.”

“Clint’s been sitting here for the past hour. He doesn’t have anything to say for himself. Mitt Romney has nothing to say for himself. Paul Ryan has nothing to say for himself,” he said. “We’ve got to make our voices heard. We’ve got to speak loud and clear. If we do that, we will win in November.”

“Dirty Harry, Dirty Harry, make my day,” Saunders yelled, knocking the empty chair off of the stage.

Buzzfeed's report by Rosie Gray indicates that Saunders was a bit more over the top than the Politico pair indicated (HT Blue Crab Boulevard via Instapundit):

"Mitt Romney doesn't have anything to say," Saunders continued. "Paul Ryan doesn't have anything to say."

Suddenly, the tone changed: Saunders, finishing his speech, began to kick the chair, threw it, and yelled "Dirty Harry, make my day! We're gonna kick ass in November!"

The crowd was cheering, and the humor had gained a palpable edge.

So it appears that Politico may have decided to appoint itself the official language cleaner of organized labor and perhaps the entire Democratic Party.

There appears to be no direct reference to "Empty Chair Day" or Saunders' speech at the Associated Press based on related searches done at about 10:30 PM ET. It would appear that the self-described Essential Global News Network is still waiting for instructions from the Obama administration and/or campaign as to how or even if it should report the chair-related events today.

Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.