Last Chance For A Colombia Pact

Transition: Rahm Emanuel didn't waste time outlining the Obama agenda. On Sunday, he warned President Bush not to attach Colombia's free-trade pact to bailouts in Congress. But that's what Bush can and must do.

The last days of Bush's administration might just be decisive for that treaty. Emanuel, Barack Obama's chief of staff, was big news on a Sunday talk show demanding that Bush sign off on every check Congress puts in front of him

But there is one little thing Emanuel didn't want in his gift bag for every special interest group that ever supported Obama — a free-trade agreement with Colombia, the only proposal that would actually provide real stimulus to the economy. Ironically, the pact is opposed by the same unions that would stand to benefit from it.

But no matter to Emanuel, whose insistence that the Colombia pact not be attached to the automobile industry bailout is the opposite of a bipartisan compromise. Emanuel's blatant unwillingness to even allow a treaty to be attached is a bid to give unions a double-dip reward for their millions in campaign contributions to re-establish Smoot-Hawley protectionism...

[and in the process abandon a true friend in Latin America we sorely need]

READ MORE