A follow-up to the White House’s blasting of labor for spending $10 million in union dues on a failed attempt to make Bill Halter the Democratic nominee for United States Senate — Arkansas.

The AFL-CIO isn’t taking the criticism well, blasting the White House back for assuming that labor is in the pocket of the Democratic Party. Yeah, go figure that someone might make that assumption.

“If that’s their take on this, then they severely misread how the electorate feels and how we’re running our political program. When we say we’re only going to support elected officials who support our issues,” said AFL-CIO spokesman Eddie Vale. “When they say we should have targeted our money among some key house races among Blue Dog Democrats –that ain’t happening.”

“Labor isn’t an arm of the Democratic Party,” Vale said. “It exists to suport (sic) working families. And that’s what we said tonight, and that’s what we’re gong to keep saying.”

We’ll leave that absurd “standing up for the working family” line alone for the time being. Most people who read that will either laugh out loud or be forced to restrain their amusement. It’s simply a ridiculous assertion. So let’s not waste time on that.

Labor didn’t spend $10 million of the bosses’ money on the campaign. That was $10 million taken from its members to support a far-left candidacy to unseat an incumbent left-wing senator. $10 million on one failed candidacy.

The White House’s criticism is quite fair and accurate. The unions wasted money. Bottom line.