Another Failure of Democratic Leadership
 

The Democrats are going to restore America's image in the world??? Yeah, right.

This one really p*sses me off. From the WSJ today:

Pelosi's Bad Faith
April 10, 2008; Page A14

The Democratic Party's protectionist make-over was completed yesterday, when Nancy Pelosi decided to kill the Colombia free trade agreement. Her objections had nothing to do with the evidence and everything to do with politics, but this was an act of particular bad faith. It will damage the economic and security interests of the U.S. while trashing our best ally in Latin America.

The Colombia trade pact was signed in 2006 and renegotiated last year to accommodate Democratic demands for tougher labor and environmental standards. Even after more than 250 consultations with Democrats, and further concessions, including promises to spend more on domestic unemployment insurance, the deal remained stalled in Congress. Apparently the problem was that Democrats kept getting their way.

So on Monday, President Bush submitted the bill to Congress over liberal protests, which, under a bargain between Congress and the White House for trade promotion authority, mandated an up-or-down vote within 90 days. Today Ms. Pelosi will make an ex post facto change to House rules to avoid the required vote, withdrawing from the timetable and thus relegating the Colombia deal to a perhaps permanent limbo.

Democrats say it would have failed anyway, but at least a vote during the next three months would have forced them to show the courage of their protectionist convictions. Instead, they chose to shelve the bill in an election year while paying off organized labor and other antitrade yahoos. The gambit is especially humiliating for Ways and Means Chairman Charlie Rangel, a free-trader who has been trying to strike a deal with the Administration but keeps getting rolled by Ms. Pelosi.


For good measure, the double-cross dismantles the only process that allows any Administration to conduct good-faith negotiations with foreign nations. No one is going to take the U.S. at its word if Congress is going to change the rules when it has second thoughts and renege.

The latest Democratic objection is that Bogotá isn't doing enough to protect labor activists. But the murders of trade unionists have fallen by almost 80% since 2002, in part because of special protection programs, and Colombian President Álvaro Uribe has reduced other violence by nearly every measure, particularly against narco-traffickers. But any excuse will do. Yesterday Ms. Pelosi said the bill would harm "the economic concerns of America's working families." Yet over 90% of Colombian imports enter the U.S. duty-free, while the agreement would open the Colombian market to American goods that face tariffs as high as 35%.

Even if the free trade agreement is somehow removed from cold storage, Ms. Pelosi's cheating is a first-order strategic blunder. Colombia is one of America's closest friends in a hostile region menaced by Hugo Chávez's Venezuela. For all the talk of repairing the U.S. "image" in the world, the Democrats don't really mind harming that image if it pleases the AFL-CIO.

Most of us agree with this but you guys on the Left Coast need to please stop re-electing her!

And in the amount of time it took you to copy-and-paste a diatribe about an obscure trade agreement, Bush pissed away $175k in Iraq...

OK - nothing else matters and gets done until we are 100% out of Iraq.

Since when has the Executive Branch controlled the budget? Speaking of which, I thought Pelosi promised to stop funding the war...

IIRC, the Dems have tried and failed over 40 times to cut off the funding.

Nice deflection Thom. Now do you actually have something to add to the topic at hand?

News Item today, also from the WSJ....

The trade gap expanded unexpectedly to $62.32 billion in February as imports of cars and consumer goods surged despite the weakness of the economy. Exports rose 2%, but imports increased 3.1%.

And thats despite a "weak dollar" that's supposed to fix it.

I'm glad she killed it.

Actually, the Columbian deal opens them up more for us and our goods, and makes the USA built equipment they need more competative with other countries goods.

Nancy is making her mark as a woman in politics, too bad she is not really thinking with her brains, and more with her c---.

Do Nothing Nancy. No wonder she and Harry share an approval rating ten points lower than Bush's.

I really do believe this hurts us on trade overall and especially in South America. And all the Democrats on here can say is deflect, bash Bush or point to a trade deficit this agreement would have actually improved.

Colombia has a 20 year communist and drug fueled civil war. Then you have crack-pot Chavez next door. Two thirds of the educated upper and middle classes have fled to the USA...

Trade is how we help them help themselves. They are not flooding walmart with cheap knock-offs.

The Dems are idiots on this one. When it all falls apart it will be Bush's (or McCain's) fault...

Cat mfg could be squeezed out of Colombia.