I just love this:
But the House speaker, J. Dennis Hastert, told [Rep. Hayes] they needed his vote anyway. If he switched from "nay" to "aye," Mr. Hayes recounted, Mr. Hastert promised to push for whatever steps he felt were necessary to restrict imports of Chinese clothing, which has been flooding into the United States in recent months.
Sometimes, the only way to get free trade is to restrict free trade. The world is funny like that.
"This became much bigger than Cafta, because it became a political issue," said Rob Portman, the United States trade representative. "It was important to our position as the global leader on trade, so we had to fight back, and to fight back meant being very aggressive, explaining why it was good."
Because it'll get the GOP to take a more protectionist stance on China. Now I see why it passed...
"What was the cost to the U.S. taxpayer for the president, with all of his power and all of his influence at his disposal, what was the cost to U.S. taxpayers of his very slim margin?"
The full answer will not be known for some time. Opponents of the trade pact said Republicans lured many lawmakers by earmarking billions of dollars for pet projects in a $286 billion highway spending bill.
The GOP should be very proud.
