If the president is going to pack the panel with cronies, how "independent" is it going to be?Chris Good of the Atlantic: Oddly enough, SEIU actually lobbied against the creation of a bipartisan deficit commission when it was being considered in the Senate, concerned with the quasi-binding nature of the suggestions that would have been offered under that commission--the Senate bill required congressional leaders to introduce the commission's proposals, which would be produced as a bill, for up-or-down votes in their respective chambers. Under Obama's commission, Congress isn't bound to vote on its proposals: lawmakers can tweak them, allow for amendments, or reject them outright.Stern has been a fixture of White House summit meetings--perhaps most prominently, he was included in the health care industry meetings at the White House last year.Stern doesn't sit on any other White House commissions, but SEIU Secretary-Treasurer Anna Burger, who leads the labor coalition Change...(Read Full Post)