Recall that Senate Republicans were castigated roundly for even considering the so-called "Nuclear Option" when it came to the unprecedented blocking of the President's appellate court judicial nominees--even by some members of his own Party. John McCain, Lindsey Graham, and other "moderates" got together with some like-minded Democrats and formed the infamous "Gang of 14" --whose purpose was to divert the majority at all costs from changing the Senate's rules--which would have put a stop to the Democrat treachery, but also would have set a precedent of disregarding long-standing tradition of the Senate. This was why it was considered to be "nuclear"--and it would have been.
The Stalinist Democrats apparently had no such qualms. And there is no question this is "Nuclear". If a nuke goes off in the forest and the MSM is not all over it, did it make a sound?
Probably the best take I have yet seen on Pelosi's treachery was from the Editors of the Wall Street Journal yesterday:
The Democratic Party's protectionist make-over was completed yesterday, when Nancy Pelosi decided to kill the Colombia free trade agreement. Her objections had nothing to do with the evidence and everything to do with politics, but this was an act of particular bad faith. It will damage the economic and security interests of the U.S. while trashing our best ally in Latin America.Even the ardently liberal San Francisco Chronicle is aghast that Pelosi has changed the House Rules in the middle of the so-called "game", with the result of denying our strongest ally in Latin America a seat at the trading table. This is not merely bad form; it is a new low from these dishonorable American apostates.
The Colombia trade pact was signed in 2006 and renegotiated last year to accommodate Democratic demands for tougher labor and environmental standards. Even after more than 250 consultations with Democrats, and further concessions, including promises to spend more on domestic unemployment insurance, the deal remained stalled in Congress. Apparently the problem was that Democrats kept getting their way.
So on Monday, President Bush submitted the bill to Congress over liberal protests, which, under a bargain between Congress and the White House for trade promotion authority, mandated an up-or-down vote within 90 days. Today Ms. Pelosi will make an ex post facto change to House rules to avoid the required vote, withdrawing from the timetable and thus relegating the Colombia deal to a perhaps permanent limbo.
Democrats say it would have failed anyway, but at least a vote during the next three months would have forced them to show the courage of their protectionist convictions. Instead, they chose to shelve the bill in an election year while paying off organized labor and other antitrade yahoos. The gambit is especially humiliating for Ways and Means Chairman Charlie Rangel, a free-trader who has been trying to strike a deal with the Administration but keeps getting rolled by Ms. Pelosi.
For good measure, the double-cross dismantles the only process that allows any Administration to conduct good-faith negotiations with foreign nations. No one is going to take the U.S. at its word if Congress is going to change the rules when it has second thoughts and renege.
The latest Democratic objection is that Bogotá isn't doing enough to protect labor activists. But the murders of trade unionists have fallen by almost 80% since 2002, in part because of special protection programs, and Colombian President Álvaro Uribe has reduced other violence by nearly every measure, particularly against narco-traffickers. But any excuse will do. Yesterday Ms. Pelosi said the bill would harm "the economic concerns of America's working families." Yet over 90% of Colombian imports enter the U.S. duty-free, while the agreement would open the Colombian market to American goods that face tariffs as high as 35%.
There is heavy irony in the fact that the most grievous wound from Nancy Pelosi's betrayal is not merely the long standing relationship between the Executive and Legislative Branches; for it is US Companies who are now at a financial disadvantage, because killing this deal with Colombia has ensured that it will continue to be prohibitively expensive for Colombians to purchase American goods (thus creating jobs here);meanwhile Americans will be able to purchase Colombian goods virtually at cost. Translation: this is incentive for more American jobs to be cut here because the companies that hire them are denied the opportunity to sell.
Never mind that the reputation of the US as a negotiating partner is now blown to smithereens for the rest of Latin America and the world; all due to electoral politics and partisan disregard for agreements which had been made between the Legislative and Executive Branches; not to mention agreements between two Countries negotiating in good faith.
How does a country trying to trade with the world get its honor back once it has been shown to be dishonorable?
President Pelosi. That is what she thinks she is. She deserves to be slapped in the face--it shows what great restraint President Bush has not to have done so, in my opinion. She is worthy of that level of contempt. To say that I have never felt such deep destestataion for any group of collaborators in my life as I do for these fraudulent Americans--is an understatement. At least Putin remained true to an "ideal", even if that ideal was derived from Marxist party line of his youthful KGB days. But the Democrats are betraying America and its standing in the world with this blatantly partisan move. I believe this shows what contempt they enjoy for the Constitution they are sworn to uphold--and that they have a lot in common with the Marxists in the former Soviet Union.
Pelosi's political Alpha, Omega, and all points in between are about one thing and one thing only: acquiring unlimited power--not simply more power for Democrats in the House, but a Marxist President and a veto-proof majority in the Senate. This is the nightmare scenario, and the threat of it happening is very real.
And so we know what we have always known: like any good Marxist, the ultimate aim of Democrats is to maximize their power over you; how you live, what you can and cannot say under what circumstances, the garbage that your kids are indoctrinated with in the State's school--ultimately what you and they can and cannot do--and that includes not allowing you to defend yourself. From them or anyone else.
Sound familiar? King George would have recognized it. Mao and Castro would have too. Welcome to the Joseph Stalin "model" of governance. It fits them like a glove.
If they made a film about it, they would call it The Lives of Others II. If anyone is wondering why I am not going to vote for Obama or Clinton (or Barr...), welcome to it.
God help us all.
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