Friends, Foes Made Over Trade Deal (CAFTA oppo targets House members)

[Rose Siding]

snip>
Cuellar is one of about two dozen House members targeted by trade critics, labor unions and political activists for helping Bush secure his razor-thin CAFTA victory. The targeted lawmakers include Democrats who bucked party leaders by voting for the agreement and Republicans who supported it despite heavy opposition from labor, textile or sugar interests in their districts.

Among them is Rep. Gregory W. Meeks (D-N.Y.), who was distressed to learn he was the first House member singled out on a website that promised to document how pro-CAFTA votes like his had hurt constituents. "I didn't betray anyone," Meeks protested in a phone interview.
...
Cuellar's vote for CAFTA, along with his support for other legislation backed by Bush, has made him the United Steelworkers of America's top target for 2006.

"It's a disgrace for him to vote that way, as many poor, working-class people as live in that district," Chuck Rocha, the union's national political director, said as he was heading to San Antonio to organize anti-Cuellar activities.
...
"It's going to be very painful for the members who committed to voting against CAFTA but switched," said Lori Wallach, director of Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch, an advocacy group that opposed CAFTA. "I think we're going to see equalopportunity, bipartisan accountability and retribution."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/politics/la-na-cafta7aug07,1,2374567.story?coll=la-news-politics-national

[Sadie5]

1. Good for them

I hope they target those turncoat Democrats until they finally realize that we pay their salary, not Bush. As we listen to them whine about being targeted they will maybe think twice the next time.

[Orion The Hunter]

2. Zero sympathy

THat is what I have for Cuellar and these other turncoats. Let them reap the political wind that they have sown.

[wli]

8. we also need zero tolerance for this crap

Every last one of these bastards who voted for it needs some kind of campaign demanding their resignation and boycotts and strikes demanding the repeal of CAFTA.

[reprobate]

3. If there was an Organized democrat party.....

....all the turncoats would lose their committee seats. That's where their power comes from. It's also how the repugs treat turncoats.

And will there be a primary challange to each of them?

[brentspeak]

4. I hope so

The Democratic Party has a responsibility to field good primary challengers if the goal is to punish the turncoats (which I agree, should be done). No reason to further hurt the nation by handing the seats over to Republicans.

[depakid]

11. that should only be the beginning-

make damn sure that there's a strong primary challenger- and that they get no support from the national party in the general election.

Unless and until there are consequence to Dems voting Republican and destroying the party from within- none of this will EVER turn around.

DINO's have been a cancer on the party for the past 10+ years and it's high time to excize them.... that is- if the party ever wants to be relevant again...

[brentspeak]

5. The Democrats who voted for CAFTA

and who are astounded at the blowback aimed at them for doing so must really be out of touch. Apparently, they've been spending a little too much time with K Street lobbyists and not enough time speaking to constituents. Their mistake.

[loudsue]

6. Exactly. Drink the DLC kool-aid, and go down like a Jim Jones cultist

If that doesn't drive the point home, nothing will.

Of course, Diebold may still "elect" them to congress again, but at least they'll know that their constitutents didn't vote that way. They will realize how much they're out of favor with the voters, even if those votes don't count.

The DLC propaganda peddlers told their members to vote CAFTA. I hope everyone starts seeing the DLC for what they are.

:kick::kick::kick:

[idlisambar]

7. They made the wrong choice

I hope they get what they deserve on election day.

[Joanne98]

9. TX-28: Let it begin with Cuellar

TX-28: Let It Begin With Cuellar
Posted by Tim Tagaris
It wasn't the "Gang of Fourteen" that sold out the working men and women of America in the early morning hours of July 28th, it was the "Gang of Fifteen Democrats" who voted for CAFTA that did the dirty work. Chief among the back-stabbers was Democrat Henry Cullar of Texas.

Rangel recalled a conversation he had had with Cuellar when both attended a meeting at the White House several weeks ago. “He gave me his personal assurances that if I helped this president , that this president would be there for me,” Rangel recalled. “He said he knew this from personal experience.”
And Cuellar does have a good amount of personal experience with the President and other Texas Republicans.
As a state House member in 2000, he stumped for George W. Bush's presidential effort. Afterward, he agreed to serve the new GOP governor, Rick Perry, as secretary of state.
Not only did he vote for CAFTA, but Cuellar took his actions a step further, attempting to lobby other Democratic representatives to support the bill. Fittingly, Cuellar will get primaried in 2006 by Ciro Rodriguez, former Chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus in the House of Representatives. I read with glee that labor leaders are already rallying against Cuellar and the DCCC will likely turn its back on any attempt defend the traitorous representative.
That outraged unions. Chuck Rocha, national political director at United Steelworkers, called Mr. Cuellar his No. 1 target and said he's mobilizing the district's 20,000 members and retirees. <...>

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee generally backs incumbents but probably won't give much help in this sort of contested primary.

This comes on the heels of Majority Leader Pelosi reportedly contemplating formal action against several of the Members who strayed from the caucus on this important vote. Maybe Greg Meeks (NY-6) will be next. Meeks supported CAFTA despite being unchallenged by a Republican in both 2002 and 2004. I say let the formal action begin, and let it begin with Cuellar.

In 2004, Cuellar defeated Rodriguez by 55 votes. He went on to defeat Republican Jim Hobson 59% to 39%. And although George Bush won by a narrow margin over John Kerry in 2004 in the district, Al Gore defeated Bush in 2000. We should retain this seat no matter what happens in the primary. In Texas-28, it's time to fight it out in the primary.

I know there is a lot of dissatisfaction with the D-Trip lately, but this made me happy. I know the official line is that they don't get involved in contested primaries anyway, but we all know that can be a load of mularkey at times (see Jeff Smith). I hope we can start using potential primary challenges more often as a stick for those who feel it convenient to stray from the caucus on important votes like CAFTA. For a Democrat who won by 20% in 2004, there was no excuse to vote "aye" and then attempt to lobby other Democrats to join the dark side on this one.

http://www.swingstateproject.com /

You have to scroll down one story. This is great news. Finally some backbone.

[Robert Oak]

10. About time

So long people are ignoring the voting records of these cats...

there is no "Democrat and Republican" when corpocrats are in both parties and vote accordingly.

Going after them is the way to go. At least 12 years of labor giving them campaign contributions and endorsements only to have them vote
against the interests of the American middle class.

Right on!

[warrens]

12. Some dems are in districts that strongly favored CAFTA

The ones like Cuellar and that guy from NY State really puzzle me. We know why the GOP traitors voted for it, they got threatened by the Bushies and figured they could smooth things over at home with other votes, but the Dems really puzzle me. Pelosi said the six or seven who changed their minds didn't even have a reason, which indicates to me some political bribery, like the GOP promising not to contest their seats or something.

CAFTA itself is no big deal; we pretty much had zero tariffs on most stuff anyway. My objection was the precedent it set as a special-interest packed bill that helped no one but the special interests. But apparently, the Bushies lied to a bunch of their own by telling them that changes would be made in the markup to change some stuff. Instead, Bush signed the bill as is.

The dems who voted for it should have their feet held to the fire, but good. But this is a chance to take six or seven fairly safe GOP seats. There are a lot of states that were violently against this treaty, and they were all red states, like SC, the Dakotas, Montana, Wyoming and others. It won't be just the congressional seats, either. This will help Dems at all levels in those states.

The special interests spent a LOT of money to push this through. I had a lunch with a group who just innocently asked if I was available while they were in town, then hammered on CAFTA, back in February. The talking points were later echoed all over the place. "Already they don't pay tariffs, but we do." Not true. Most of Central America lets stuff in with very low or no tariffs. An economy the size of New Haven. Sort of true, but a much larger population desperate for work. No disruption of labor laws. Untrue, this is going to cause huge disruption as we undercut peasants' prices on corn and other cash crops, forcing them to move to the city and abandon their land.

The most dishonest one was the "harm to emerging democracies." Every one of those countries is run by a right wing oligarchy and there is nothing whatsoever democratic about any of them, except possibly the Dominican.