Today’s New York Times carries an interesting article by the paper’s top labor reporter, Steven Greenhouse. The overall story is about presidential hopefuls’ race to woo Big Labor’s big bucks, but there was an interesting reflection by one of the nation’s most politically powerful union leaders.

The Times reports:

Gerry McEntee, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, acknowledges having learned a lesson in endorsing Mr. Dean.

“We made a big error,” Mr. McEntee said. “The error was that to a large extent it was a leadership decision made without a deep enough effort to see how our members really felt.”

Hmm … yes … I suppose getting member input on how their money and voice is used would be a good thing. It’s interesting to note that the lesson was only learned after abusing those members’ trust — and it doesn’t appear anything has formally changed in the interim. It’s still up to the union bosses …