When the Milwaukee Teamsters last fall trumpeted their endorsement of Jim Doyle for governor, the then union-boss Frank Busalacchi hailed him for coming to the rescue when Consolidated Freightways shut down and laid off scores of truckers.

“His quick response of filing a lien against the company before their bankruptcy filing assured Wisconsin Teamsters of priority for their claim,” Busalacchi wrote in a quarter page statement in the union newsletter under the headline “Jim Doyle endorsed for Governor.” “Jim made Wisconsin the only state in the country that accomplished this.”

To bad it’s not true.

Taking a U-turn, two Teamsters leaders told former Consolidated Freightways employees that the union’s previous spin was wrong.

“It appears the Attorney General’s office filed the lien against CF approximately 2 ½ hours after CF filed bankruptcy,” wrote Sebastian Busalacchi and Chris Varsos, the secretary-treasurer and president, respectively, of Teamsters Local 200.

Indeed, assistant attorney general R Braun confirmed that the Washington-based trucking co. filed for bankruptcy at about 2 p.m. on Sept. 3. It wasn’t until 4:30 p.m. that Jim Doyle’s AG’s office got around to filing its lien for 6.8 million in wages owed.

“There’s no doubt in my mind that we filed post- (bankruptcy) petition, unfortunately,” Braun said.

Two and a half hours doesn’t sound like much, but it might be the difference between whether the laid-off truckers collect some cash or are shut out of the court proceedings.

Braun said it was just this issue that is being litigated in a very similar Wisconsin case being argued in federal appellate court.

A federal judge ruled in that case that liens filed after the bankruptcy petition hits the courthouse are not valid, meaning laid-off Wisconsin workers would have to stand in line with ex-employees from across the country. If the lien is considered valid, the Wisconsin workers would be able to cut in line, giving them a shot at getting a bigger chunk of the bankrupt company.

Consolidated Freightways liquidated its Wisconsin assets last weekend.

Varsos isn’t pointing the finger at anybody about the union’s resent discovery, but he is clearly peeved.

“I’m certainly not blaming the AG’s office for it- it was 2 ½ hours, and they were dealing with a holiday partiers,” he said, pointing out the petitions were filed the day after Labor Day. “The only thing that bothers me is that I found out eight months later”

Not only were the Teamsters wrong about the lien, but the union also missed the boat in the same October newsletter when it gave Doyle credit for slapping the company with a complaint charging it failed to give workers proper notice before closing.

That complaint was filed, but not by the AG. A few truckers themselves took the initiative.

For the most part, the attitude among union honchos seems to be, “Hey party like a pig, everybody makes mistakes.”

Which isn’t surprising given the close relationship between the Teamsters and Doyle. The union dumped tens of thousands of dollars into his gubernatorial campaign, longtime Teamster lobbyist Marty Schreiber is one of the Democratic guv’s closest pals, and Frank Busalacchi left his post as head of Local 200 to join Doyle’s cabinet.

As you might expect, Busalacchi was loyal to his new boss.

“Jim Doyle is the best thing that ever happened to the Teamsters in this state,” he said, obviously being totally objective.

But what about those former Consolidated Freightways workers who were told by their union that Doyle deserved their vote after riding in on a white horse to save the day?

Though this won’t put anything into the empty wallets of those out-of-work truckers, Busalacchi said he didn’t mean to deceive.

“There was no intent to mislead anybody about anything,” Busalacchi said.

“All I was told was that the lien was filed” he added, “and that was good enough for me.”

Now there’s a political loyalist.