There have been a few diaries on this topic today. But I wanted to express my frustration with the Democratic Congress. I'm also ashamed of Clinton and Obama for not showing up; its one thing to miss a post office vote, but to miss something so crucial is disrespectful to your state.
The roll call was 77-18.
I think its noteworthy that 7/8 of the freshman who were elected in 2006 voted against it. Jim Webb voted in favor, he was the only freshman to do such a thing (he campaigned on economic justice, not fair trade per se); all the others held to their campaign promises.
I feel betrayed though by Senators Clinton and Obama. Biden and Dodd didn't show up either, but they aren't going to be elected president anyways. But Clinton and Obama didn't take the time to go and vote, probably because both were afraid to go on record for it. HRC and BO, so ardently campaigning for labor endorsements, telling AFL-CIO at their forum that they supported fair trade, don't even have the backbone to go vote on a bill that was trade related.
Was Peru FTA as horrendous as NAFTA? Not necessarily, it had added provisions. But the AFL-CIO opposed it, and I wonder why?
We are justifiably skeptical about whether the Bush administration will faithfully enforce the newly negotiated labor and environment protections, since this administration has done such a poor job enforcing these provisions in existing trade agreements.
I mean, its not like we have a disfunctional Justice Department or anything... I think all the Democrats who voted in the affirmative, and all the Democratic senators running for president have proven that we haven't learned from our mistakes. They still trust Bush. I'm sorry, if HRC and BO support this, they are supporting Bush's discretion. And if history has taught us anything, thats like proclaiming World War III.
Lets ask ourselves a question. Are Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama qualified to be president if they trust Bush will do the right thing? Proof of misjudgement.
I'll do you a favor and update the fair trade record:
Clinton - 38%
Obama - 33%
Edwards - 63%
Richardson - 10%
Kucinich - 94%
Dodd - 37%
Biden - 24%
I think we know which candidates care about American labor.
Please note: Republicans Duncan Hunter, Tom Tancredo, and Ron Paul have better fair trade scores than HRC and BO.