Blog-IT-o ergo sum

	6/10/2005

Gutierrez and O'Henry - Together at Last

U.S. Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez graced us with his presence at the O'Henry Hotel today from from about 12:30 to 2:30pm.

While not invited into the Chamber of Commerce event directly we were able to have a pleasant glass of cabernet in the well appointed O'Henry lobby. From our comfortable vantage point Greensboro JBS Chapter Leader Les Creech and myself watched as approved guests like Mayor Holiday were allowed into luncheon meeting room off the main lobby. We had a direct line of sight to the front doors for watching Secretary Gutierrez pull up in his four car motorcade: Two black Lincolns boxed in by a color matching F350 pick-up and Chevy Suburban.

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You wear a sharp suit and tie (from the Hub Ltd in my case) and have some well polished literature to hand out and eventually someone will pay attention. By the end of the pro-CAFTA Chamber of Commerce pitch Les and I had talked with WXII, Fox8, the Winston Salem Journal and AP Charlotte. Don't know how we missed the News and Record.

So far, Paul Nowell of AP worked in a quote from Les.

Bob Buckley definitely had the pro-CAFTA talking points down solid but did ask to be e-mailed the CAFTA Chapter 11 points we had referenced from the official document. The video reporter from WXII Eric Dowdy thought enough about the Chapter 11 issue they he made it one of his questions in his private interview with Secretary Gutierrez. Gutierrez dismissed our point as, "the opposition getting very creative." He said CAFTA does not change our immigration laws.

We responded to Eric that, yes, CAFTA does specifically state that private individuals cannot avail themselves of the free trade allowed in CAFTA only companies can. That is, a doctor from Costa Rica would not be able to use CAFTA to transfer his license and start up a practice in the United States. But, Moses Cone hospital could eventually "onshore" a dozen or so doctors and have their foreign licenses recognized. Just like NAFTA whereby GM can freely bring in a $20,000 from Canada and yet a GM retiree can't bring in a $200 bottle of medicine, a corporation or a government will be able to bring in professional service providers but the individual service provider will not be able to bring himself in.

Sure pays to be the people at the table writing the agreement.

Sidebar 1: As the event was wrapping up, I thought I would set up a good photo op. During the entire time Secretary Gutierrez was present we had a pickup truck towing our STOP the FTAA/CAFTA sign back and forth on Green Valley Road. I used my cell phone to call in a Farwell pass right by the Secret Service motorcade in front of the hotel.

Except perhaps for some snipers on the roof I did not notice, the SS men were all inside the hotel at the time I rang up our truck crew. Our guys said they were just up the street and would be right in. "Drive by real slow," I said "so I can try to get off a couple of good shots." (That probably sounded interesting to anyone listening in.)

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We broke off communication. Just then the men in black came out of the hotel to take up their positions for the Secretary Gutierrez's departure. Is this great timing or what, I thought. Unfortunately our truck's position obscured my line of sight to the two main SS guards.

Our driver and my son Alex in the passenger seat however assured me that even with his sunglasses on the one 6'4" 300 lb white guy had an extremely unhappy expression on his face as they passed by him. He is the one standing next to the column in the second shot (above) that I took after our truck had passed by the motorcade and circled back around the entrance arch.

I was tempted to get closer to the SS guys for a better picture and possible comment, but decided not to push our luck. Trust me, they really did not look like the small talk types.

Sidebar 2: Anyone know how common it is for press conferences to be reduced to individual private meetings with each news team or reporter? I would think this puts the interviewee in the more dominant position. I believe today's interviews behind closed doors looked something like this: Secretary Gutierrez flanked by his cheif administrative assistant and a body guard in the background takes a question from a lone reporter or reprorter plus his camera man.

The other thing I found interesting was that Richard Craver of the Winston Salem Journal who has been covering the CAFTA story was honestly not aware that his paper had come out as pro-CAFTA in their editorial on Wednesday (Not online but I have a copy here of "Our Voice" from the Hickory Record which reprinted the WSJ opinion.) You would think the editors might even just for a courtesy consider talking to their man in the field who they have covering the issue.

If you can't wait to read the pending N&R editorial on CAFTA just read the Winston Salem Journal's. It's likely to be virtually identical. Though in the N&R's defense, I did get a call from Becky today to confirm that I was the one who sent in a letter (against CAFTA) to the editor on Wednesday.

9:08:05 PM

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