Whoa! I just read a Washington Post story, and it says that CAFTA will go back to the Senate for final passage before it goes to Bush for his signature.
The Post
says:
The Senate approved CAFTA last month 54-45. But it has to vote again because the U.S. Constitution requires bills affecting government revenues to begin in the House.
Senate supporters hope opponents will agree to final approval without further debate. That would send the bill to President Bush for his signature.
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist said he did not anticipate any problems getting Senate approval again. Senate aides said they hoped that could be done before August.
So, the Democrats in the Senate can still filibuster CAFTA. It first passed the senate with a 54-45 vote, so apparently it does not have the 60 votes needed to break a filibuster. But do Democrats have 41 brave Senators who are willing to vote "no" on cloture? And if so, should they filibuster it now even though it passed just a short while ago? I don't know about you, but if I were in the Senate I would try to filibuster this thing. This is a very very serious issue. This is about working people being sold out by their own governement here and in central America. This is bad for wages, bad for small business, bad for everyone but a select few large corporations who already make huge profits. CAFTA is simply terrible.
Why shouldn't Dems filibuster it, given a chance, I say. But then there might be too many Liberman-ites who are afraid to take a stand either because they have no spine or because they are afraid of being called "obstructionist." Maybe we can do something about that. For everyone here that has a Democratic Senator, can we all get on the phone and call them and say, "here is your chance, filibuster this excuse for a trade agreement"? Would it make any difference this late in the game? You tell me.