All Politics is Local

[Corlyss_D]

Please, Ms. Pelosi, beat the Black and Hispanic members of your caucus some more!

Pelosi Outraged to Discover 15 Dems Don't Share Her Malign Ignorance

The emergency meeting of House Democrats called by Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi last night was a subdued affair with flashes of rancor against 15 Democrats who broke ranks and provided the crucial votes to pass President Bush's Central American Free Trade Agreement.

Ms. Pelosi called the meeting after what she told reporters was "a sleepless night" chewing over why Republicans were able to pull off the 217-to-215 victory even after labor unions warned they would withhold contributions from Democrats who voted for free trade. The Democratic leader is said to be contemplating changing plum committee assignments if the renegades don't explain their apostasy.

Democrats say they are especially upset at the pro-CAFTA votes of Reps. Gregory Meeks and Edolphus Towns of New York, two black Democrats with large Hispanic populations. Ditto for Reps. Henry Cuellar, Ruben Hinojosa and Solomon Ortiz, all of whom bluntly told Democratic critics that CAFTA meant jobs for their districts. Two other Democrats, Norm Dicks of Washington state and Ike Skelton of Missouri, are on the blacklist because, as one Democratic aide put it, "they have 30 years of seniority each yet they didn't play with the team."

Rep. John Lewis, a Democratic whip and leader in the Black Caucus, told his colleagues he was bitterly disappointed in the actions of the defectors, saying: "I don't think people are going to forget what happened. Members who didn't have to worry about their future and who are in very safe districts didn't have to vote the way they did."

But other Democrats say blaming the defectors is akin to "shooting the messenger." One former Democratic member told me: "Pelosi didn't whip the vote so she shouldn't be surprised if some people did what their district told them to do. Her anger is a form of frustration at her own ineffectiveness in stopping Republican victories."

-- John Fund

[Ralph]

Such goings on!