Tuesday, September 16, 2008

The Joe Buck Disgusting Act of the Week: Rahm Emanuel... Again!


It's the start of the NFL season, so what better time for another installment of the Joe Buck Disgusting Act of the Week? And for the first time ever, we have a repeat offender: Rahm Emanuel!

So what did Rahm do this time?

David Sirota:

Here's the snippet (no link because the publication is subscription-only):

"Among the House Democratic leadership, Democratic Caucus Chair Rahm Emanuel (D-IL) is actively advocating that Democrats would be better off having the votes on pending [free trade agreements] this year for a number of reasons, sources said. They said that one of the reasons Emanuel cites is that there are likely more Republican members in this Congress than there will be in the next, which would mean that fewer Democrats would have to take a potentially divisive trade vote now."

Correct: Emanuel - one of the original architects of NAFTA - wants congressional Democrats to pass controversial NAFTAs with Colombia, South Korea and Panama right now, so as to avoid inevitably STRONGER opposition from his own party in the next Congress.

To really fathom how incredible this is, understand that Emanuel - the Democratic leader - is effectively acting as the House Republican whip. He's saying that he wants these bills up for a vote because there are enough Republican votes right now in the House to pass it over current Democratic objections - and there won't be enough GOP votes in the next Congress.
(Emphasis Mine)
Wow, even for Rahm that's disgusting. Trying to jam through unpopular legislation because you're worried that your own party might win to many seats for it to be possible next year... that's sure how you want your party's leadership to be thinking.

This all goes back to a point that Sirota and others made during the spring after Pelosi postponed the votes on these trade agreements. If the congressional leadership wanted the deals dead, they would have been dead. They postponed them not because of principles (or spine, guts, conviction, balls, dignity, whatever you prefer), but because they didn't think they had enough votes to pass them. The question is not if they can make these horrific deals better, the question is when they have enough votes to slam them through congress against the will of the American people. Not if, but when.

But then again it's not like using his power to fuck over the working class is something new for Rahm, either. I can't quite remember, something about dead bodies...

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