The Wall Street Journal, perhaps embarrassed by the flood of Citizens United money that is battering president Obama, reported today on its front page that organized labor is spending “about four times as much on politics and lobbying as generally thought.”

The Republican party house organ scanned “a little-known set of annual reports to the Labor Dept. made by local unions, national parents and affiliates.” That allowed the crackerjack WSJ research team to factor in union money spent for political items, such as bratwursts, that were bought in the unsuccessful effort to oust Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker.

Lyle Balisteri, president of the AFL-CIO affiliate in Milwaukee, admitted to the Journal that the unions spent thousands to unseat Scott, but he didn’t exactly know “how many bratwursts were cooked up there to feed those folks for weeks and weeks and weeks.” That’s another job for the WSJ research team.

Rupert Murdoch's flagship says though unions are a declining share of the overall workforce, labor’s political spending “could be a stronger counterweight than commonly realized to ‘super PACs’ that today raise millions from wealthy donors, in many cases to support Republican candidates and causes.”

That’s a stretch. Karl Rove and his gang aren’t spending cash for truckloads of brats. The AFL-CIO spent money in a defensive move to feed an army of people that are under siege by GOP lawmakers. Rove and his gang are on the offense 24/7.

The WSJ set up a false equivalency and provided political cover for the super PAC campaign to buy the presidential election for Mitt Romney.

My bet is that the super PACs could buy tons more brats than the AFL-CIO.