Note to Democrats: If you find yourselves in charge of Washington, D.C., after Nov. 7, be careful about resting on your laurels. Some of your friends who would have helped you get there are going to be watching and looking for people to replace you with if you don't live up to campaign promises.

"There really is no accountability, particularly on the Democratic side," Andy Stern, president of the 1.8 million-member SEIU, told me this morning.

He said a decision has been made to form a new political action committee after the election called They Work for Us.

"The idea is we are going to have, I hope, a whole new group of Congress people coming to Washington. They are going to have made lots of promises in their campaigns to change our country. And the ones that fall into the too typical place of not living up to their promises, we're going to find other people in primaries to explain that and hopefully replace them."

The model for the PAC comes from the other side. Stern said They Work For Us will follow strategies pioneered by the Club for Growth. That's a conservative business-backed group that aggressively goes after Republican incumbents it feels are not hewing to Republican fiscal policies.

It's a tough group. Already this year the Club for Growth had a major victory. In August the PAC had its first success defeating an incumbent in a primary. In Michgian the Club for Growth backed Tim Walberg over Congressman Joe Schwarz, who had been endorsed by President Bush and Sen. John McCain. Schwarz was what the group calls a RINO, Republican in name only.

Stern wouldn't say much about the new PAC. He said details won't be released until after the election. But he said it will be backed by other progressive organizations and some "very traditional Democratic organizations."

Stern is in Seattle to promote his new book, "A Country That Works." I've wanted to interview him for a couple of years so I'm glad he's on a book tour and looking for ink.

The book is Stern's take on what's wrong with America and what to do about it. Since becoming president of Service Employees International Union he has turned the SEIU into a major union and a political force. In Washington state, SEIU membership has gone from 5,000 to more than 100,000.

A couple of things jumped out at me in the book. Stern is tough on Democrats as well as Republicans. He criticizes the Republican Party for what he thinks is a wrong-headed ideology, and the Democrats for not offering much of an alternative. He also speaks political heresy, and questions politicians' focus on education and high-tech jobs as the American panacea.

Here's what he says in his book about Democrats:

Unfortunately, the Democratic Party is best known for what it stands against — Republicans. They should stop the Bush bashing and talk about the nation's problems.

Stern told me:

"I think they have an incredible amount of work to do if they want to be a party that working people, middle-class people, say are on their side. And they need new ideas.

"We're not going to drive into the future looking into the rear view mirror. We're as far today from the New Deal as the New Deal was from the Civil War. I'm sure Franklin Roosevelt admired Abraham Lincoln. But he didn't build an industrial economy around 1865 principles and we're not going to build a 21st Century economy around the principles of 1935."

The SEIU backs up its bipartisan talk with money and election support for Republican candidates. In 2004, according to Stern's book, the SEIU was the largest contributor to the Democratic and Republican governors' associations. Overall, though, the union remains much more a backer of Democrats.

In Washington state, the union is expanding the number of Republican legislative candidates it is supporting, "even backing a few Republican incumbents in key races where the Democrats hope to mount serious challenges."

"I think it's been enormously important to be independent for two reasons. One is, Republicans compete for your involvement in their campaigns and they compete on issues because if they really do stand up for what is right for middle class Americans, the people will actually stand up for them. Competition is always good.

"Secondly, I think it just means Democrats can't take you for granted any more, and they too have to stand up for issues."

As Stern hopes to do with his new PAC, SEIU has tried to take out Democrats in primaries. The union came up with most of the $275,000 Alice Woldt spent in 2004 to try to beat veteran Democratic Rep. Helen Sommers, chairwoman of the House Appropriations Committee. She was seen as not supportive enough of a new contract for home health-care workers that SEIU had negotiated.

Sommers won a close race. There hasn't been any noticeable fallout for the union for being on the losing side. And Stern said the union doesn't regret making a hard run at Sommers.

"I don't think there is any rethinking of exactly what we did. You can always look back and say we should have talked to her more upfront. We may have done it differently. But the point was we had home-care workers who were incredibly hard working and not doing well economically. We had an opportunity to change their lives and our members were disappointed in what she had done and they made a decision that we needed to make a statement.

"Statements are important. I don't think this is always about winning and losing."

The SEIU faced another primary loss this year with its campaign against Sen. Tim Sheldon, D-Potlatch.

Stern talks about education in a chapter of his book called, "Don't Let Them Fool You." He says Americans are being distracated by "The All-Purpose-Education Diversion."

Universal public education is a hallmark of American democracy — one of our great achievements — but claims that education alone is the remedy for America's economic ills or the mechanism to distribute wealth more fairly is pabulum for the chattering classes.

Stern said this morning that only eight of the fastest growing jobs requires a college education and that college graduates over the last five years are making less in real wages "because the economy is not supporting college-educated graduates any more than it is supporting other workers in middle-class America."

He agrees the United States needs to compete internationally in math and science. He says we should do whatever it takes to find the 70,000 to 100,000 new engineers and scientists needed every year.

"But you can't build an education system on 70,000 to 100,000 people a year. We all need the best education. It's just not an economic plan for America."

Stern will at the Montlake Ale House at 5:30 tonight. It's a Reading/Drinking Liberally event.