David Sirota on the CAFTA sellouts.

[reprehensor]

Sirotablog, July 27,2005

We now know who the 15 Democrats are that each undermined their party and America's middle class by casting the deciding vote for the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA). The bill passed by one vote, meaning each of the 15 Democrats cast the deciding vote. When 27 Republicans vote against their own party leadership as they did on CAFTA, Democrats have only these 15 sellouts within their ranks - and groups like the DLC that pushed CAFTA - to blame for the fact that the Democratic Party has been relegated to permanent minority status.

The 15 Democratic sellouts were:

Melissa Bean (IL)
Jim Cooper (TN)
Henry Cuellar (TX)
Norm Dicks (WA)
Ruben Hinojosa (TX)
William Jefferson (LA)
Jim Matheson (UT)
Greg Meeks (NY)
Dennis Moore (KS)
Jim Moran (VA)
Solomon Ortiz (TX)
Ike Skelton (MO)
Vic Snyder (AR)
John Tanner (TN)
Ed Towns (NY)

snip

But, let's further break this down. Which of these 15 Members has CONSISTENTLY been selling out the Democratic Party and America's middle class? The way we find that out is by looking at other recent votes on key economic issues, such as the Bankruptcy Bill, and the bill to limit citizens' legal rights and protect corporations that abuse Americans.

Starting with bankruptcy, we get the list whittled down to 12: Bean, Cooper, Cuellar, Hinojosa, Jefferson, Matheson, Meeks, Moore, Moran, Ortiz, Skelton and Tanner.

more@link

[still_one]

1. Please do NOT forget the Senate democrats who sold out

feinstein CA
lincoln AR
Murray WA
Nelson FL
Nelson NE
Pryor AR
Syden OR

Lieberman (D-CT), Not Voting

[Mass]

9. For once, Lieberman deserves a pass

His mother had just died the day before.

For the other ones, I agree, though Murray surprised me a lot.

[sunnystarr]

11. Lieberman is a Senator

This was a house vote. In the senate CAFTA passed 54-45 and Lieberman was a no vote.

[Mass]

12. I was answering the previous post

concerning the Senate vote.

I know this was a House vote, thank you.

And here is the roll call for the Senate. As you can see by yourself, Lieberman did not vote (for the reason I stated earlier).

http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=109&session=1&vote=00170

[Larkspur]

15. Lieberman voted "No" on the bankruptcy bill but he voted for cloture on

the discussion of the bankruptcy bill, which the Dem leadership wanted to keep open. by voting for cloture on the bankruptcy bill, Lieberman new that it would hit the floor and be passed, so he pleased his corporate masters with that vote. By voting "No" on the bankruptcy bill on the floor, he can use that vote to against progressives to say how progressive he is.

With Repuke-lite Dems, like Lieberman, you have to weigh all their votes leading up to these bills, not just the final vote.

[sunnystarr]

21. Thanks for the correction and for demonstrating

that Lieberman is corporate whore.

[Mass]

36. Now we can yell on him.

Just voted YES.

[SaveElmer]

14. So Hillary opposed CAFTA I notice...

Which means she went against the DLC...am I correct ?

[Larkspur]

16. She's playing the Lieberman game of looking like a progressive

but actually helping corporateions via the back door.

Hillary has tied her wagon to the DLC corporatist wing of the Dem Party. She will try to play the Potempkin Progressive but will actually do what she can to further corporate power in this country.

[SaveElmer]

17. I see...

So when she votes with the DLC she roundly criticized here as being a "tool" of the DLC...

And when she opposes them, she is a crass opportunist!!!

Sorry, doesn't fly...I bet you could poll 100 peaople in the US and 95 of them would have no idea what CAFTA was...perhaps she looked at the bill...saw what most here saw that it was a bad idea, and voted against it!!!

[Joanne98]

34. Cantwell and Murray= Boeing Lincoln and Pryor= Walmart

Feinstein Full Blown Neo-con!

[Wetzelbill]

2. I knew Meeks was going to sell out

[EST]

43. I started becoming suspicious of Meeks

when I noted his lack of zeal dering the HAVA/voting rights discussions before the election. No guts.

[Greeby]

3. Moran

He's certainly living up to his name:



:evilgrin: Hope that cheers somebody up a little

[Lisaben2619]

4. Gosh, wonder why so many labor people want their unions to stop

blindly supporting politician just because they have a bid "D" after their names.

[mrgorth]

5. Mother fuckers!

[depakid]

6. None of the 12 should get one nickle from the national party

PERIOD.

If the dems are serious about winning, they're going to have to purge themselves of these types of people- it's as simple as that. Until they do, they'll remain irrelevant.

[flpoljunkie]

7. Another blown chance by the D's to show they are different from the R's by

standing up for economic justice. Instead, just enough of them sold out to Dubya and the multinational corporate bosses to enable the passage of CAFTA--all the more outrageous that it would have gone down hard without their votes.

[Talismom]

8. If real democrats (progressives) want to send a message that puts an end

to the DLC and these sell outs to the corporate oligarchy, we must target these 12 people by working hard to effectively back 12 solid, democratic candidates and BEAT THE TRAITORS DECISIVELY! Any ideas of how to orchestrate ths loud-and-clear message?

[Mass]

10. Out of these 15, 12 are not DLC

For the rest, I agree.

[sunnystarr]

13. My LTTE

Sent to The Tennessean:

Last night I made my first phone call to any representatives during the 40+ years of my adult voting life. I was thrilled to make the call since Jim Cooper was a Democrat, thinking that surely no Democrat would vote for a treaty that was in the interest, once again, of the corporations at the expense of the American workers. Well folks the CAFTA bill was passed and ONE vote would have defeated it. 15 Democrats were against working people, 2 of those were from TN: Cooper and Tanner. Both of them also voted with the credit card companies and against us to pass the bankruptcy bill. Aren't there any real Democrats in TN? You can bet Cooper lost my vote since my choice will be which Republican to put in office and you can bet it won't be him. Don't just put your representatives in office ... hold them accountable!

On edit: I sent Cooper my LTTE prefaced with this:

Here is my letter to the editor to The Tennessean. I'm not sure if it will be printed, either on or off-line, but I want you to know that not only am I watching your votes and noting the votes that are against Democratic principles, but I'll do all I can to spread that message. I'm incredibly disappointed. Since you obviously expouse Republican philosophy or the need to sell out the American people, you might be better served, and certainly you constituents will be better served, if you would just run on the Republican ticket. When we vote for a Democrat we expect a Democrat, not a wolf in sheep's clothing.

[Bullwinkle925]

19. Good for you. Great letters!

Be interesting to see whether you receive a response from Cooper's office.

[Talismom]

20. Excellent LTTE! Nice job! n/t

[realFedUp]

22. thank you to David Sirota for keeping track of these votes

and voters for us. All these people should
have a Dem running against them in their next
races.

[Nederland]

18. Here's an Idea

Instead of talking about which Republican seats are weakest and open to a Democratic victory, let's identify Democrats we want to pick off.

Yeah, that's a great idea. :eyes:

[xxqqqzme]

23. if U have a democrat as

your REPRESENTATIVE who is NOT representing Democratic principles then hell yes. I wish I had the luxury of having a rep w/ 'D' behind their name, instead of 1 who wouldn't dream of not kissing the neo-cons asses.

[sunnystarr]

24. If you have Dems that are always voting with the Rs

then do you have a Dem? Cooper doesn't represent Dem principles and votes with Rs - so what good is he to his Dem constituents? Yeah I'd rather vote for an R to get rid of him so that a real Dem can get the seat back. I haven't lost a thing cause my real choice was between 2 Rs anyway.

There aren't that many of them. Those 15 represent 7.5 of Democrats, and 13% of the 15 are from TN. They need to be replaced by real Democrats. We need to get rid of the DINOs who consistently betray their constituents.

[ibegurpard]

25. And this issue isn't even a "social" one

that the conservative Democrats supposedly have to tread carefully around. This is an issue that directly affects working-class Americans in their pocketbooks. They have nothing to gain by supporting CAFTA except corporate contributions.
They have to go.

[Nederland]

27. Let dispense with the lie

These are NOT Dems that are ALWAYS voting with the Republicans. They all have ADA ratings above 60%, and most are in the 80%+ range. The truth is that they are merely Dems that happened to vote the "wrong way" on some person's pet issue.

[ibegurpard]

29. Working class Americans are a pet issue?

Nice. No wonder they're increasingly choosing not to vote for Democrats.

[Nederland]

32. Apparently its yours (nt)

[Elidor]

31. Dispense with the lie? Or send up a new one?

It's the multinational corporations' pet issue. Those who voted for the special interests over the needs of their constituents should be spanked. And Pelosi is gearing up to do just that. Sit back and watch. Or maybe you should send Pelosi a letter telling her not to hurt them because this is just a "pet issue."

[sunnystarr]

33. oh ok ...I guess CAFTA and the Bankruptcy bill are just pet

issues with some Dems here and there. There isn't any Dem philosophy that's involved and it's so not important :sarcasm:- just my pet issue? Those issues and tort reform will never affect me personally. The only issue for me personally is social security. Those issues are important because they encompass main Democratic principles and values and affect great segments of our population. When a Dem representative votes against the core interests of their constituents then they don't deserve their position of trust. Let's see ... toss a coin ... corporate interests or public interest ... what a tough choice for a Dem! Vote them out all in the primary then. But they need to go.

[Nederland]

38. Yes they are

Apparently you don't understand that there are winners and losers in any trade pact. It may just be that the Democrats that voted for this bill happen to represent districts that stand to gain from CAFTA. Ever think about that?

[sunnystarr]

39. Apparently you don't understand ...

Cooper represents the 5th Congressional District in TN. Main population is Nashville. It's not a predominant rural district and I can't see any jobs here that would be outsourced.

He has what is considered a very safe seat for the Democratic Party; no Republican has represented this district since 1875. Cooper has represented the district since 2003.

He's part of the Blue Dog Coalition (known as Blue Dog Democrats that have 35 members in the House.

Tanner started the Blue Dog Coalition and many Blue Dogs are also DLC. Now if this moderate to conservative coalition were pro free trade I could at least understand their vote due to their beliefs, but most of them are protectionists. Note that out of 35 Blue Dogs, only 2 voted for CAFTA.

Tanner may have been influenced Cooper since Cooper is so new. Tanner's district is more rural and his district wouldn't be too happy with CAFTA even if they didn't lose any jobs. His district borders Cooper's and runs to the western border of TN north of Memphis, which is Ford's district. Ford voted against CAFTA.

There isn't any gain in CAFTA for TN. Removing tariffs on our manufactured products going to Central America is going to do what?? With people in Central America making less than $1 an hour they won't be able to afford our products any more than they do now.

So the real question is how much was the bribe for their votes.

[Nederland]

40. Apparently you don't understand ...

Tennessee exported over $270 million dollars to the CAFTA region in 2004--the 11th largest exporter among the states.

Despite what you claim, there is a significant benefit to TN.

[sunnystarr]

41. Obviously they did that with our present trade policy. (nt)

[Nederland]

46. Yes, they did

...and when tariffs get eliminated they will probably do much more. Right now the CAFTA region tariffs are unbalanced. The US imposes very few tariffs while Central American countries impose rather stiff tariffs. This corrects that imbalance and levels the playing field for US exporters.

In sum, this deal will be good for manufacturers and bad for farmers. I'm not surprised therefore, given your assertion that Cooper's district is not very rural, that he voted for it.

[Capn Sunshine]

35. It's called primary wars

What's the point of having someone who votes the other way against our interests?

"Fight the fights you can win" is what they keep telling us. Well, we could have won if these fools had voted in solidarity. But the siren song of corporate lobbying was too strong.

If they don't line up when we need them, they are as useless to the cause as hen shit on a pump handle.

[paulk]

26. maybe they did what they thought was best for their districts

like the 27 Republicans who voted against it.

I realize that this concept doesn't fit in too well with Mr. Sirota's black and white world.

[nadinbrzezinski]

28. Yes that is their argument

point is, I will NOT vote for DINOs any more, call it black and white... but I won't. A candidate is a member of the DLC, I vote for the Green...

[paulk]

30. in some districts, a DINO is the best that one can do

and the real game is control of the House.

And as another post mentions, most of these Democrats were not members of the DLC, so I don't understand your reference.

[DisgustedTX]

37. Gee - Hispanics in TexAss selling out for Bush - who would've thought?

:(

False hopes & promises dominate.

[Totally Committed]

42. TomPaine.com: Spanking The CAFTA 15

Spanking The CAFTA 15
Jonathan Tasini
July 29, 2005

Enough is enough. The 15 so-called Democrats who voted for the Central American Free Trade Agreement must pay a heavy price for turning their backs on labor: None of them should receive a dime from labor unions and each one should face a labor-backed primary challenger next year. And the recruitment of good candidates should start now. If the CAFTA 15 do not suffer the political consequences for their vote, labor will look weak and the march of so-called “free trade” will continue. (Here are the CAFTA 15...drumroll, please...: Melissa Bean, Illinois (8th District): Jim Cooper, Tennessee (5th District); Norm Dicks, Washington (6th District); Henry Cuellar, Texas (28th District); Ruben Hinojosa, Texas (15th District); William Jefferson, Louisiana (2nd District); Jim Matheson, Utah (2nd District); Gregory Meeks, New York (6th District); Dennis Moore, Kansas (3rd District); Jim Moran, Virginia (8th District); Solomon Ortiz, Texas (27th District); Ike Skelton, Missouri (4th District); Vic Snyder, Arkansas (2nd District); John Tanner, Tennessee (8th District); and Edolphus Towns, New York (10th District).)

>snip<

I am not unsympathetic to the political calculation of the balance of power in Washington. But one of my favorite political axioms is that if you give voters a choice between a Republican and Republican-lite, they will always choose the real thing. No other issue can, and should, distinguish the two parties. But if some Democrats cannot understand, or, worse, do not care that so-called “free trade” is eviscerating the dreams of millions of people, they shouldn’t serve in Congress. They are hurting the party’s long-term prospects, not to mention the future for workers.

I have argued for a long time that labor should stop pouring money into politics—at least at the federal level—and instead pour union resources into organizing millions of new workers. Then they can return to the political arena, when labor’s vote can carry more weight. But, for God’s sake, shouldn’t we at least cut off money to people who won’t stick up for the future economic livelihood of millions of workers? Labor must declare immediately that unions will deny the CAFTA 15 their support. That means that, come campaign season, the CAFTA 15 will not find a single check in their mailboxes, nor receive an endorsement to grace their campaign literature, nor count on union members to make the thousands of phone calls or house visits that turn out voters. Let’s find primary opponents for each one.

Few politicians are guided by deep principle. Most understand one thing: power. And, just as important, once tasted, the absence of power is an enormously effective motivator. Nothing focuses the mind of a politician more than the thought of losing his or her seat. If labor had taken out one or two Democrats who voted for NAFTA more than a decade ago, I suspect that the CAFTA 15 might have numbered two or three—or maybe none. The time for hardball politics is now.

Entire article:

http://www.tompaine.com/articles/20050729/spanking_the_cafta_15.php

[EST]

44. The problem, IMHO

is that, when elected to any national office, the electee then becomes responsible for the entire country, as well as the little part of it that elected him and these folks lack the maturity to recognize this.

[reprehensor]

45. Spanking is too good for them.

Thanks for posting that.