Married to the Mob

“CAN you imagine? Planned Parenthood.” Jimmy Hoffa Jr. is eating a thick 10-ounce cheeseburger at Carl’s Chop House in a run-down section of Detroit just blocks from his Teamster offices, lamenting the prior affiliation of Bill Hamilton, a top aide to Teamster president Ron Carey. “This guy is more adept at putting condoms on bananas than representing Teamster families,” he says. Just a few yards away sit a group of about ten weathered-looking guys in jeans and shiny union jackets-exactly the union rank-and-file that Hoffa argues Carey and his liberal aides don’t represent. “He’s tied himself to every wacko left-wing group around,” complains Hoffa.

Beefy and pleasant, Jimmy Hoffa Jr. is what one labor observer calls “the Pillsbury Doughboy of the union movement.” He’s big and not particularly sharp, a former Michigan State football player who is as animated discussing his beloved Detroit Lions as he is talking about the issues roiling the Teamsters union that his father so famously built. But his attitudes are in sympathy with those of his union’s blue-collar rank-and-file; he’s a social conservative (pro-life and a long-time member of the National Rifle Association) who is more interested in building a muscular union than in forming grand left-wing alliances. That is why Jimmy Hoffa Jr. last year became the catalyst for a burgeoning Teamster scandal with far-reaching implications not just for the union, but for the nation’s politics.

About the Author

Rich Lowry

Rich Lowry is the editor in chief of National Review.

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“CAN you imagine? Planned Parenthood.” Jimmy Hoffa Jr. is eating a thick 10-ounce cheeseburger at Carl’s Chop House in a run-down section of Detroit just blocks from his Teamster offices, lamenting the prior affiliation of Bill Hamilton, a top aide to Teamster president Ron Carey. “This guy is more adept at putting condoms on bananas than representing Teamster families,” he says. Just a few yards away sit a group of about ten weathered-looking guys in jeans and shiny union jackets-exactly the union rank-and-file that Hoffa argues Carey and his liberal aides don’t represent. “He’s tied himself to every wacko left-wing group around,” complains Hoffa.

Beefy and pleasant, Jimmy Hoffa Jr. is what one labor observer calls “the Pillsbury Doughboy of the union movement.” He’s big and not particularly sharp, a former Michigan State football player who is as animated discussing his beloved Detroit Lions as he is talking about the issues roiling the Teamsters union that his father so famously built. But his attitudes are in sympathy with those of his union’s blue-collar rank-and-file; he’s a social conservative (pro-life and a long-time member of the National Rifle Association) who is more interested in building a muscular union than in forming grand left-wing alliances. That is why Jimmy Hoffa Jr. last year became the catalyst for a burgeoning Teamster scandal with far-reaching implications not just for the union, but for the nation’s politics.