My colleague David Sirota (who writes a terrific blog) passed on a couple of useful background pieces from the Capitol Hill newspaper The Hill explaining why so many members of the Congressional Black Caucus seem to be cozy with Wal-Mart.

First, the first piece recounts the furor caused by a letter sent by Anna Burger, secretary-treasurer of SEIU and chair of the Change To Win federation (though her CTW position didn’t exist at the time), to the CBC. Burger raised concerns about the CBC’s open-door policy to Wal-Mart. The CBC didn’t take kindly to the letter. But, this quote from Rep. Al Wynn (D-MD) kind of summed up the problem: “We have no permanent friends, no permanent allies, only permanent interest.”

Second, two months later, The Hill ran a piece describing a move by the Chamber of Commerce to cuddle up with the CBC. In the piece, Rep. Artur Davis (D-Ala.), a CBC member who as I pointed out yesterday voted against a House amendment that targeted Wal-Mart, says about a meeting with the Chamber, “I hope that this meeting will be a template for future interactions between the CBC and the business community. The CBC is not monolithic. It shouldn’t be written off. There are some members of the CBC who have been very interested in the business agenda.”

Hmmmm….

And a few folks were wondering how to contact the AFL-CIO and Change To Win to see if they might adopt suggestions I made to pressure the Democratic Party to stop elected party officials or operatives from romancing Wal-Mart (I’d use words stronger than “romancing” but this a family blog, no?). Best I can suggest is to call John Sweeney at 202-637-5000 and Anna Burger at 202-898-3200.

I’ll reprint the suggestions here (but people might have better ones so throw those out to the respective labor leaders):

1. The Change To Win Coalition and the AFL-CIO should jointly send a letter to Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, Charles Schumer (head of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee) and Rahm Emanuel (head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee) demanding that no work be given to any Democratic operative or consulting firm that shills for Wal-Mart. If the party refuses to at least dry up the money for Wal-Mart shills, then, the two Federations should pledge not to send a single dollar to any campaign committee.

2. Both Federations should also write to every member of Congress declaring that any Democrat receiving Wal-Mart money can kiss any labor donations or labor support good-bye.

3. Both Federations should, then, send a letter to every supposed Democratic campaign consultant and make it clear: you work for us OR you work for Wal-Mart. You can’t do both.