David

Karki

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April 14, 2008

Pelosi Betrays Colombia: The Left’s Alphabet Soup Base Demands No Less

Last Wednesday, a carefully negotiated trade deal with Colombia, which was repeatedly re-calibrated to account for Democratic labor and environmental concerns, was nonetheless killed by Speaker Nancy Pelosi. And in a most disgusting way – by unilaterally changing the House rules after the fact so the requirement of an up-or-down vote within 90 days of the president submitting the signed agreement to Congress could be avoided.

It would have been one thing to simply vote it down, but that would put Congress on the record and in a position of culpability for the consequences, and we can't have that, now can we? So Pelosi even screwed over her own Ways and Means Committee Chairman, Charlie Rangel, who had negotiated at length in good faith. Not to mention giving the finger to our best ally in Latin America, and causing them to doubt anything the U.S. says to them in the future since our word has now been made worthless in their eyes.

And most importantly, she has single-handedly wrecked the entire apparatus by which all administrations can negotiate in good faith on trade with other nations, since no one will be able to trust that Congress won't simply yank the rug out from under the whole thing whenever it pleases.

Why would Speaker Pelosi do such an irresponsible thing, real-world damage be damned? Because the AFL-CIO demanded it, and as they are one of her party's biggest donors, she obeyed in the most servile fashion. Treating an ally honorably, and strengthening an established foothold in an otherwise hostile area where it's badly needed to counter the growing influence of Venezuela's communist dictator Hugo Chavez, meant nothing to Pelosi. The AFL-CIO said “Jump!” and her response was an immediate: “How high, sir?”

And this is far from the only area where policy has been completely hijacked and held hostage by the veritable alphabet soup of interest groups that make up the base of the Democratic Party. For all intents and purposes, the policies and actions of our nation are being dictated by a handful of far left groups that are all but disconnected from reality.

Want to wiretap terrorist cell phone conversations in order to stop attacks in the planning stages and save lives? The ACLU will have a cow over that.

Want to shield the telecom industry from class-action lawsuits for having shared that data at the government's request? The trial lawyers (ABA) will bury that one.

When the Department of Homeland Security was created after 9/11, the whole thing was almost derailed by Democrats demanding it all be unionized at the behest of AFSCME. Never mind the requirement to adjust on the fly to security needs – a flexibility that never exists in a union shop.

Want to drill for oil domestically so we can be energy-independent or build more refinery capacity to better withstand the next Hurricane Katrina? The Sierra Club and the radical greenies will wage jihad to stop that.

Want to substantially change the ungodly expensive, horribly performing government monopoly on schools? The teachers’ unions (NEA) will chew you up and spit you out.

And if you want to finish the job we started in Iraq, which by all accounts (save for the mainstream media's) is going well and for which the vast majority of people of Iraq are grateful beyond measure, then MoveOn.org and Code Pink will do anything to undermine the effort.

Heck, even the Democrats' two presidential candidates are de facto demographic interest group standard-bearers: Barack Obama (NAACP civil rights crowd) and Hillary Clinton (NOW feminist crowd).

So long as Democrats remain in the majority, the entire apparatus of the federal government will effectively be the puppets of this bunch of groups. They have shown quite clearly that they are utterly incapable of doing anything that diverges from what these groups want in even the slightest way. The marching orders are issued, and loyal Democrat foot soldiers in the House and Senate mindlessly obey their masters.

To hell with the potentially disastrous consequences – from terrorist attacks to betraying new allies – liberals have to please and placate their base.

Our future as a nation depends upon breaking free from this far-left chokehold. And given the GOP's recent inexplicable determination to move hard left as well, simply swinging the pendulum back won't accomplish that by a long shot. Nor can these groups be reasoned or bargained with in any meaningful way, as Pelosi's dishonest shenanigans prove.

I fear that substantially altering the status quo will require a measure of force that most of us aren't yet willing to employ.  

© 2008 North Star Writers Group. May not be republished without permission.

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