Blog-IT-o ergo sum

	7/28/2005

Beyond CAFTA: The FTAA

"The [countries] resolve to ...contribute to hemispheric integration and provide an impetus towards establishing the Free Trade Area of the Americas [FTAA]."

--- Final sentence of the Preamble (.pdf) to the CAFTA agreement approved last night by the US Congress.

The real battle for avoiding the fate of the former sovereign nations of the European Union now begins.

10:48:27 AM

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CAFTA roll-call post mortem.

Republican Robin Hayes who announced he would vote NO during the Bush visit to North Carolina wins the Richard Burr award for betraying voters at the moment of truth. To rub it in he voted NO and then was the one member of the House who switched his vote in the closing moments. If you saw the c-Span vote total go from 214-211 to 215-210; that was our Robin Hayes.

Republican Charles Taylor of Asheville and points west wins the dishonorable mention award for being one of the nine non-voting members during the last 15 minutes of the 1 hour roll-call. Having said he would vote NO, he ended up as one of only two members in the chamber who did not cast a vote. Perhaps his deal fell through and they turned off his electronic vote button just before the speaker dropped the gavel and closed the vote.

Republican Joe Wilson of South Carolina was the other last minute traitor.

And that folks they say was the difference.

Thank you to all the Congressmen from the Carolina's who honored their pledges; especially Walter Jones, Mike McIntyre, Virginia Foxx, who were out in front early in announcing their opposition. Patrick McHenry honored his pledge though he did cast his NO 24 minutes after the 15 minute clock timed out. It was good to see Howard Coble and Mel Watt come down on our side at the final hour --- though of course being ones others look to for leadership they were late for the game.

Thank you also to everyone who worked to get the message out to our elected officials, our press organs and our fellow countrymen.

10:32:47 AM

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CAFTA passed 217-215.

The 15 minute vote took over an hour but the Bush forces did pull out the victory. I did not have a timer running but I think the vote stood at 184 for and 192 against when the 15 minutes originally allowed for the vote timed out. I suspect this was likey the reason that the GOP leadership continued to hold the vote open after having regained the lead 214-211 twenty minutes or so later.

Don't know enough about c-Span to know if it is customary but as the vote stalled out at that 214-211 mark with no change and the clear majority of comment callers running against CAFTA...including a coherent one that sounded like a Birch member mentioning the FTAA and Codex and another from Winston Salem asking for Virginia Foxx to vote No, the c-Span commentary went mute for about 15 minutes. Video but no sound. No way of knowing what was happening while we watched an unchanging screen for at least 15 minutes. All people around the country could see was that the vote was frozen at 214-211 with 9 outstanding votes -- 8 Repuplican and 1 Democrat.

When c-Span finally came back on with sound they announced the names of the holdouts. Marty Mehan of Massachusetts was the lone democrat and Charles Taylor of NC who told us that he was going to vote NO was one of the Republicans.

Just past midnight (on the 15 minute vote that started at 11:00pm) things suddenly began moving again. Well past the time to correct a mistaken electronic vote the Nay side suddenly lost a Republican vote creating a revised total of 215-210. Quickly following that the one Democrat went YES taking things to 216-210. Then another vote For took things to 217 -- almost instantaneously followed by two more nays making the total 217-215. Then, almost instantaneous with those votes the Republican controlled leadership dropped the gavel and closed the vote. Not aware yet if Congressman Taylor was one of the two House members who were frozen out of the vote of if he was turncoat number 216 or 217. (There was one member absent tonight in the 435 member house.)

In the end, anti-CAFTA forces secured 27 GOP votes of the 25 we knew we needed to have a chance at victory, but we could not come through on holding the Democrat defections to the "10 not more than a dozen" which was the strategic target. Final Democrats for CAFTA totalled 16.

While disappointing not to win outright, I can go back to my team and claim we are still in position to win the ultimate battle on the FTAA. For a couple of months I have been comparing the situation on CAFTA to the Battle of Guilford Courthouse. The patriots had to cede the battlefield that day to the British. But, it was a costly victory for Cornwallis. His depleted army limped into Yorktown from that fight and the rest as they say was history. We need to make sure the same now holds true for President Bush and his backers.

Personally, I closed my long night by walking out of my hotel room in Greenville, SC, past two shirtless male Mestitos in the hallway watching their laundry tumble in the dryer. I went down a stairway to the lobby where "Paul" who helps his brother-in-law from Madras run this Microtel. From there, still wearing my Korean suit tailored of Italian fabric, I got into my 93 Toyota Camry, drove past the Michellin building down the street from the BMW plant here and ducked into the Logan's Texas Roadhouse where I got myself a fresh plate of nachos. I washed it all down with a tall draft of Blue Moon from Italy paid my tab with my VISA card and called it a night.

Sidebar:

While it was excruciating to listen to Nancy Pelosi closing the debate for the Democrats by retailing the reasons she considered CAFTA bad (not enough government control) it was even more chilling to hear Republican Clay Shaw of Florida close the debate for his side by noting that Republicans in the house should see this CAFTA vote as their opportunity to mature into a PERMANENT majority...Now you know why I needed to leave my room after midnight to get a drink.

2:23:43 AM

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