Working A Double Shift

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Hoffa is also posting his valentines to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. The hope is that the Justice Department will shutter the three-member Independent Review Board, which monitors the union for fraud. Hoffa, who gets to choose one board member, has opted for G.O.P.-friendly lawyer Joe DiGenova. The Administration picks the other, and the two members select the third. Hoffa's move is likely to appease skeptical Republicans if the watchdog group says the Teamsters are clean.

The flirting also keeps Democrats in line. "We're not trying to drive a wedge between us and the Democrats," says Mike Mathis, Teamsters director of government affairs. "But they can't take us for granted." Such pragmatism will help Hoffa's re-election bid this fall. The Teamsters are more diverse than other unions, and G.O.P. ties will appeal to members who backed Nixon, Reagan and the President's father. Tacking Republican also distances Hoffa from his predecessor, now on trial for perjury connected to an alleged scheme to use money tied to the Democratic Party.

Still, Hoffa can't stray too far from the Democrats. Bush has sided with labor when its interests coincide with those of business, but the President is unlikely to abandon his corporate backers on such issues as trade and workplace safety. Hoffa knows that. But playing two sides is already paying dividends.

--With reporting by Michael Duffy/Washington