May 10, 2007 2:50 PM

NY TIMES: Pelosi To Potentially Defy Majority of House Democrats On Trade

Breaking news out of Washington tonight, and an update from my earlier post today. The New Democrats just sent out a press release announcing a major press conference with Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charlie Rangel (D-NY), Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT), House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Bush Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, Bush Trade Representative Susan Schwab and members of the New Democrats (aka. the faction of Democrats that have historically pushed lobbyist-written trade pacts and the bankruptcy bill). This is an event to announce a new series of "free" trade deals being pushed by the White House. Not a single progressive populist Democrat will be represented at this event, and worse, the New York Times now reports that Pelosi is indicating she may push the "free" trade package over the opposition of the majority of her Democratic caucus.

Apparently, this answers the earlier question about whether Pelosi will stand up for the Democrats in her caucus that ran against lobbyist-written trade policies in 2006. Even more shocking, however, is this New York Times article just posted which notes:

"Despite the endorsement of Rangel and Pelosi, many Democrats say that half or more of the Democrats in Congress may vote against the deal. But the agreement is expected to pass with strong backing among Republicans, whose leaders will urge them to vote with President George W. Bush on the matter. The Bush administration hopes that this agreement paves the way for a much broader deal to extend Bush's authority to negotiate future trade accords and get a quick up-or-down vote on them."

Put another way, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is apparently taking a position on one of Election 2006's key issues that potentially puts her at odds with the majority of her own caucus, six months after her caucus used the trade issue to win its majority. Meanwhile, the entire "deal" is a move to set the stage for the White House to try to force Congress to pass "fast track" trade authority - the authority that allows the president to strip all labor, human rights and environmental provisions out of trade deals. And, as if putting an exclamation point on the whole story, the New York Times notes that the press conference to celebrate the deal comes "as the government revealed a significant widening of the U.S. trade deficit."

The public is still waiting to see the details of this deal, so we can't pass full judgment on the proposal yet. However, Democrats, in tactics reminiscent of the Cheney energy task force, have helped keep the details secret, raising questions about what they've been hiding and about the ethics of concealing arguably the most important international economic negotiations in a generation.

UPDATE: Lobbyist-in-congressman's-clothing Roy Blunt issues a statement cheering on the "deal." Still no details available.

UPDATE II: The New York Times story is now on the Business Page of the Times' site. The story includes no comments from representatives of labor, human rights, environmental or consumer protection groups, and no full details about the "deal."

UPDATE III: Both a news release from Pelosi and a document sent to Capitol Hill staffers from Baucus's Senate Finance Committee trumpet new labor protections, but do not say that multinational unions will be able to go to courts to demand enforcement of labor laws - a key privilege multinational corporations currently have in trying to dismantle federal and state consumer protection, environmental and labor laws.

UPDATE IV: A glimmer of good news. The Financial Times reports that "the terms of the deal are still being finalized...Democrats were on Thursday resisting making a commitment to seek the passage of a pending trade agreement with Colombia. The Colombian pact has been singled out because of government links to right-wing death squads, the high level of political violence, and killings of trade unionists. The exclusion of Colombia is a setback for the administration...Business lobbyists were less than enthusiastic about the administrations' concessions, which were a sign that the tremendous influence of corporate lobbyists over trade deals had been weakened slightly."

UPDATE V: This is hugely important. U.S. Chamber of Commerce President and Republican Party bigwig Tom Donohue tells AFP news service that he is "encouraged by assurances that the labor provisions [in the deal] cannot be read to require compliance with ILO Conventions."

UPDATE VI: MyDD's Matt Stoller uncovers a letter from six fair trade Democrats demanding a major caucus meeting to discuss the imminent Bush-Rangel-Pelosi-Baucus trade deal in order to avoid a major split inside the Democratic Party over the deal. The letter was sent 40 minutes before Pelosi, Baucus and Rangel joined Bush officials at the press conference to announce the deal.

UPDATE VII: AP reports that "a half-dozen House Democrats with strong labor ties, watching the news conference from the back of the room, later expressed strong dissatisfaction with the process." Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-OH) said, "The strongest voices for workers and the environment were not included" in the negotiations and were not informed of the deal. Similarly, Rep. Michael Michaud (D-ME) said, "I'm very disappointed that Speaker Pelosi held a press conference before meeting with the caucus. In a democratic process Democrats ought to know."