Nancy Pelosi pulls a fast one on the Bush administration.
The House adopted a rules change Thursday that freezes the Colombia free trade agreement by waiving a requirement that Congress act on it within 90 days. The rule passed mostly along party lines by a vote of 224-195 with one lawmaker voting present.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Congress and the White House must first enact policies to help the faltering U.S. economy before approving the Colombia pact. “We should certainly do more for our economy before we pass another trade agreement,” she said in remarks on the House floor.
Pelosi just changed the Fast Track trade authority rules in the House so that she is under no obligation to put the Colombia trade bill on the calendar. She has many motivations for doing this, but here’s one of them:
…Democrats have argued that President Bush broke years of precedent by submitting the trade agreement to Congress without first receiving approval from House and Senate leaders…
…Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.), chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, said President Bush “forgot” to consult with his panel before crafting the proposed deal with Colombia. “Let’s give the House more time to facilitate an atmosphere to allow the members [to] know what’s in the bill,” he said.
It’s instructive to look at the ten Democrats that voted against Pelosi:
- Melissa Bean (IL)
Dan Boren (OK)
Allen Boyd (FL)
Jim Cooper (TN)
Robert ‘Bud’ Cramer (AL)
Henry Cuellar (TX)
Baron Hill (IN)
Nick Lampson (TX)
Tim Mahoney (FL)
Jim Matheson (UT)
John Tanner (TN) voted present.
Every one of these Democrats, excepting Tim Mahoney, is a Bush Dog Democrat, meaning that they voted in May 2007 for supplemental war funding with no strings attached and that they voted in August 2007 to give the president unprecedented warrantless wiretapping abilities. Mahoney escaped a designation as a Bush Dog despite capitulating on the war funding because he opposed the NSA power grab.
It’s not clear why the same group of Democrats would be pro-war, pro-Soviet style domestic surveillance, and pro-free trade, but there you have it. Any way you slice it, these are terrible representatives. Rep. Cramer is retiring, and most can argue that they represent conservative districts, but I think it’s worth a phone call to these folks to ask them why they can’t support the Speaker and why they continue to vote like Bush’s lapdogs.
when are these Bush dogs up for re-election so we can take away their bones? there’s a tsunami of change coming.
Every 2 years
like all House members, they are up for election every even-numbered November.
None of them have credible primary opponents.
Progressive Gretchen Clearwater is running her second campaign against Baron Hill. She had a decent showing last time around. I hope we can add to that this time. Its a very tough, conservative district, but just maybe…
what was her ‘decent showing’?
I am so damn glad Nick Lampson is not my congressman. He has Tom Delay’s old district and keeps kissing republican butt in his district to get re-elected.
My new Representative, Jackie Speier, won the special election on Tuesday, got sworn in this morning, and has already gotten booed and walked out on by the Republicans. From the SF Chronicle’s website:
“Newly elected Democratic Rep. Jackie Speier of Hillsborough was sworn into Congress this morning and delivered a fiery speech criticizing President Bush’s Iraq policy that led some Republicans to boo and walk out of the House chamber.
“Speier, who won a special election Tuesday to fill the seat of the late Rep. Tom Lantos, was always an outspoken lawmaker in her years as a San Mateo County supervisor, state Assemblywoman and state Senator. She served notice Thursday that she plans be just as aggressive as a member of the House.
“‘The process to bring the troops home must begin immediately,’ Speier told fellow lawmakers including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco. ‘The president wants to stay the course and a man who wants to replace him suggests we could be in Iraq for 100 years. But Madam Speaker, history will not judge us kindly if we sacrifice four generations of Americans because of the folly of one.’
“While Democrats applauded, Republicans began a chorus of low boos. Some Republicans who had congratulated her just moments before, including Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Vista (San Diego County), walked out of the hall in protest.
“Speier’s 13-year-old daughter, who was watching from the House gallery, asked, ‘Why are they booing my mom?’
“After her speech, Speier said she had held more than 60 public meetings in recent weeks and the most common question was, “When will we get out of Iraq?” She said didn’t expect the negative reaction from Republicans but it didn’t bother her.”
Wasn’t Darrel Issa the guy who forced a vote during the Lantos memorial? He hates your district.
Oh, no, never mind, that was one of the Miami repubs.
We need a lot more of these!
Show you who wants her to be the nominee, another reason not to vote for her