Dems Find Backbone re "Free Trade".....David Sirota

[AnnInLa]

More Proof the Trade Debate Has Changed

Here’s the Financial Times today:

“The US Congress will reject two trade deals agreed with Colombia and Peru, leading Democrats said, in a significant blow to President George W. Bush’s agenda for his final two years in office. Democratic lawmakers drafted a letter to Mr Bush on Tuesday night signalling their opposition to the pacts because they lacked tougher labour standards.”

Why is this happening? Here’s Sen.-elect Sherrod Brown (D-OH) in the Washington Post:

“The message of this election says to me that all of these trade agreements need to be renegotiated. When a plant of 300 people closes in a town of 20,000, it hurts families and destroys communities.”

This is really incredible. Suddenly, the progressive agenda on trade is ascending. Suddenly, the Bob Rubins, the Gene Sperlings, the Tom Friedmans and the rest of the neoliberals are being steamrolled. Suddenly, Democrats have found a backbone on globalization, pushing for policies that lift the world up, rather than those that create a race to the bottom.

http://davidsirota.com/index.php/2006/11/23/more-proof-the-trade-debate-has-changed/

[porphyrian]

1. This needs to be in some peoples' faces. - n/t

[AnnInLa]

2. Needs to be in the MSM news!

[porphyrian]

10. Fuck the media. They sold us out, and they're going to be held accountable. - n/t

[Zhade]

3. It suuuuuuure does.

Like the resident conservative assholes right here on DU who support NAFTA/CAFTA (which need to be revised to include worker protections, or better yet repealed).

Kickin' this baby!

[Heywood J]

12. Yeah.

Wanting to import something from the US without duties - that makes me a conservative asshole. You keep on digging.

[porphyrian]

13. Well, you're half right.

If you ignore the damage those treaties do to local economies and the labor movement in general just so that you can avoid paying duties on an import, then you're completely right.

[antigop]

4. And I'm just sooo happy about Hoyer's position....

NOT!

[Kolesar]

5. What did Hoyer say? I could not find it in the Wa Po article

thanks

[w4rma]

7. Majority Leader Hoyer has been a long time 'free' trader.

…
On trade, it’s the same thing. Mr. Murtha represents Johnstown, Pa., the type of hardscrabble, working-class district Democrats have too often lost since President Bill Clinton joined with Wall Street to push free-trade pacts in the mid-1990s. In representing this kind of district, Mr. Murtha has opposed many of the most destructive trade agreements that sell out American workers. In the most high-profile example, he went up against Mr. Clinton by voting against the China trade deal in 2000.

Mr. Hoyer, by contrast, voted for the China pact and a number of other trade agreements opposed by Mr. Murtha and progressive Democrats. He has parroted much of the rhetoric of the Democratic Leadership Council - the corporate front group that has relentlessly pushed Democrats to provide the crucial congressional votes necessary to pass free-trade pacts.

Neither candidate, of course, is perfect. But this is far more than merely a lesser-of-two-evils choice.
…
http://davidsirota.com/index.php/a-majority-leader-not-a-follower/

[Zhade]

8. Guess he's going to have to be educated away from anti-worker corporatism, then.

NT!

[Kolesar]

11. Even gop congressmen like Latourette & Regula vote against trade agreements

...in the mode of Democrat John Murtha of Johnstown, Pennsylvania. Latourette made a mistake voting for CAFTA to please bush. Too bad it did not cost him. I think his opponent, Lew Katz, got the Ned Lamont treatment of lukewarm support. In this case, Latourette was such a powerful committee member that he could "earmark" spending for political reasons. Local Democratic mayors and even other Ohio Democrat Congress members would not campaign for Lew Katz.

I have often posted that Murtha was the man that "the generals" went to first with their misgivings about the war because Murtha was their buddy to appropriate lots of money to the military and the defense contractors. So, I have my doubts about Murtha. However, this time in history may be the opportunity to use Murtha to remove the parasite that is the military-industrial complex from the host that is America.

As for Hoyer, we are just going to have to teach him how to dance to our tune.

Thanks for doing your homework (the Sirota link). :hi:

[OhioChick]

6. Yeah!

That's my Senator, Sherrod Brown! :)

K&R

:kick:

[JeffR]

9. Took a pledge a while back not to swear in my post titles

so down here, in non-bold characters, I'll just say: FUCKIN' A!