Did you think they were gone for good?
The answer's "not just no, but HELL NO!"
Check today's edition of The Hill:
Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.), a close ally of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), is calling elements of a Peru free-trade agreement (FTA) signed by the Bush administration a threat to national security. The chairman of the House Defense Appropriations subcommittee has warned Democratic leaders on trade that the deal grants a United Arab Emirates company the ability to invest in U.S. ports.
Murtha has asked Ways and Means Chairman Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) to demand that the administration alter the free-trade deal it negotiated with Peru to prevent enterprises there from investing in U.S. landside port activities.
If the administration fails to make such changes, Murtha and Rep. Gene Taylor (D-Miss.) charge that a "trade pact-granted right" to invest in U.S. ports would be handed to Dubai Ports World (DPW).
How would this happen?
Murtha and Taylor argue that the issue is particularly sensitive with the pending Peru FTA because Dubai Ports World has acquired a 30-year concession to develop and operate a new container terminal just outside of Lima. The move makes DPW an enterprise in Peru that under the FTA would be able to make investments in the U.S., according to the congressmen.
The "administration," though, argues that the "essential security" provision in this and other trade deals allows the U.S. to unilaterally prevent such things, if deemed necessary to, well, its "essential security."
But:
Murtha and Taylor, however, argue the provision is insufficient since Peru could in turn sue the U.S. under the deal’s dispute-settlement system. A successful challenge could cost the U.S. millions in taxpayer dollars, the two congressmen say.
Big Time Republican donors exposed as terrorism suspects (even as the GOP keeps their money), and now caught trying to shoehorn DPW back into the U.S.
Wonder of wonders, it's another bad week for the GOP and the "administration." And we haven't even hit the Friday news dump yet.