HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius held a brief conference call with SEIU members this afternoon.

She hailed them as her “brothers and sisters” and urged them to show up at town hall meetings.

She gave the same stultifying mini-lecture about the sanctity of Medicare. “Change is not easy,” she droned. “We need to roll up our sleeves.”

No mention of how SEIU thugs rolled up their sleeves and attacked a black conservative protester in St. Louis or ran interference in Tampa Bay.

In an attempt to reassure SEIU members that senior citizens would not suffer under Obamacare, Sebelius said “Saving lives saves dollars.” Which might come as news to Zeke Emanuel.

Sebelius thanked an SEIU member who showed up at the Tampa Bay melee and urged more to get involved. “Keep doing what you’re doing.”

SEIU heavy Dennis Rivera then took over, taking calls from scripted SEIU members who read statements (one of which was painfully, barely coherent).

Rivera closed by railing against the “radical fringe” of “right-wingers” and urged his “Purple Army” to fight “terrorist tactics.”

Pot and kettle.

***

Fun fact about Anna Burger’s staff from Culture of Corruption:

Another Stern administration protégé, Annelle Grajeda, rose to power after the SEIU president installed her as president of the 80,000-member Local 721 in Los Angeles. She ascended to positions on the union’s state council and international executive board. Like Freeman and Jackson, Grajeda had been voted onto Stern’s official administration slate at the SEIU convention in 2008. The Times published damning details of how Grajeda’s ex-boyfriend, SEIU official Alejandro Stephens, collected multiple salaries and consultant fees from the union while also pocketing a salary as a Los Angeles County health services employee. Grajeda had arranged an eight-month leave of absence from the job on behalf of her ex-lover. He was fired after he refused to return to work. Grajeda quit her California posts after catching public flak and found a new job – as special assistant to SEIU secretary-treasurer Anna Burger in Washington, D.C.! Her former chapter heralded the move. Grajeda will now oversee efforts to “partner with the Obama administration” to secure more public funds for SEIU projects. What could go wrong?

Former SEIU 721 President Annelle Grajeda assumed her new role as special assistant to the International Secretary-Treasurer Anna Burger for the Public Sector Mar. 9.

According to a staff announcement from the International Union in Washington, D.C.: “With more than two decades of service, Annelle has played a critical role in winning strong contracts for tens of thousands of union members, preserving trauma centers in Los Angeles County, fighting for health care reform, defeating ballot initiatives in 2005 that challenged working families’ livelihoods and uniting more than 80,000 workers into SEIU 721 for greater strength and a stronger voice for public service providers. She brings this wealth of experience and talent to the national level in her new role.”

ORDER IT NOW

…The International’s announcement went on to state “While there has been no finding of wrongdoing on Annelle’s part, she has decided to change the capacity in which she serves the Union in order to take on the challenge of developing quality public services at a time when funding is threatened like never before.”

In her new role, Annelle will expand SEIU’s work in the public sector partnering with the Obama Administration to secure more funds for key infrastructure projects and core public services including care for the elderly, health care, education and social services.