The Absurd Report

Congress: The cowardly start more wars than the courageous. Nancy Pelosi’s craven altering of House rules to kill off Colombia’s trade pact brings that danger to the Andes. If war breaks out, her name will be on it.

April 10 may end up as a date which will live in infamy. The Speaker of the House not only refused to step forward and be counted on approving the vital Colombia free-trade agreement, she ran away from letting anyone else vote on it.

After President Bush submitted the pact to a vote under fast-track rules, she changed them to ensure it wouldn’t go anywhere anytime soon. By a 224-195 House vote, the voting timeline rule on trade pacts was changed from 90 days to whenever. Pelosi now can hold up Colombia’s treaty however long her caprice dictates.

“The message Democrats sent today,” a bitter Bush warned after Thursday’s vote, “is that no matter how steadfastly you stand with us, we will turn our backs on you when it is politically convenient.”

Pelosi’s move leaves Colombia, an ally, in limbo and uncertainty. She may think her clever maneuver was done in a vacuum, but it wasn’t. In Venezuela’s capital of Caracas, where Hugo Chavez holds forth, and in the jungles of Colombia, where drug terrorists hide out, Pelosi’s move was watched closely.

Indeed, within hours of the vote, Latin American media already were calling Pelosi’s maneuver the “Chavez Rule.”

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Pelosi’s Bad Faith

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.

Source: Wall Street Journal

Shameless, Feckless Cowards

Further to yesterday’s post, rather than have a vote on the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement within 90 legislative days (as set out by law), House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced that she will change House rules to avoid having a vote on the agreement before the November elections. It’s not yet clear to me how that can be done, but such action will speak volumes about the rudderless Democratic Party.

Apparently, the leadership hasn’t decided whether supporting the agreement—supporting export opportunities, encouraging and deepening business ties, promoting investment in Colombia, supporting an ally in a hostile region, and preserving the value of U.S. credibility—is worth more votes than union money can buy.

If members of Congress don’t want to be held accountable to the electorate, they shouldn’t seek office in the first place. But as we’ve seen time and again, it’s never about good policy. It’s only about holding onto power. No wonder Americans have such contempt for Congress.

Source: Cato-at-Liberty