Last Summer saw an interesting display of an unlikely political coalition in the vote of the Amash-Conyers resolution to end the NSA collection of telephone meta data. While the resolution was narrowly defeated, what was of great interest was the makeup of the votes on both sides of the issue. The members supporting the resolution were left leaning Democratic progressives and right leaning Republican libertarians. These are two political groups that are not normally thought to have much in common. The opponents of the resolution were the Democratic and Republican centrist. In that instance majority leader Nancy Pelosi supported the white position in opposition.
Today's front page issue is the bill authorizing fast track negotiating authority for the Trans Pacific Partnership. Obama's trade policy has shown extensive continuity with the trade policies followed by both presidents Clinton and Bush. It is essentially the standard neoliberal agenda of wide open free trade. One difference that Obama has faced in pursuing that agenda is that the economic fortunes of average Americans are more clearly on the decline since the crash of 2008 and the political climate has changed accordingly.
Trade Pact With Asia Faces Imposing Hurdle: Midterm Politics
President Obama’s ambitious trade agenda appeared to fall further victim to election-year politics on Capitol Hill on Friday when Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., in a closed-door retreat with House Democrats, said he understood why they would not grant Mr. Obama the crucial authority he needs to conclude large trade deals with Asia and Europe.
White House officials insisted that Mr. Obama was not ceding the battle, either to win fast-track authority or to pass the broader trade deals. The European trade deal, the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, is also affected by fast-track authority, which is viewed as essential to passing any agreements, and it is one area on which the president and Republicans agree.
“While the vice president said he understands where some members of the House and Senate are coming from,” said a senior administration official, “he made a clear case for the administration’s trade priorities, including the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations.”
Obama is faced with opposition from the Democratic majority leaders in both the House and Senate. This time Pelosi has decided to shift from the center to the left. As a person born to politics, the ability to sniff the political winds is embedded in her DNA. Obama's support for fast track is coming from the Democratic and Republican center. The interesting development is that once again we find a common position developing between the progressive left and the libertarian right.
Will Democrats and Tea Partiers Derail Obama's Secret Trade Deal?
But this week, about 151 House Democrats and 23 Republicans—many of them tea partiers—wrote letters to the administration saying this time they are unwilling to give the president carte blanche to "diplomatically legislate." If a couple dozen more lawmakers join the unlikely group of Dems and GOPers, the House could have enough votes to shoot down fast-track and derail the TPP. If Obama doesn't get the special trade powers, Congress will likely try to make some changes to the final pact, which could cause other countries to drop out of the deal.
Nancy Pelosi and Michele Bachman seem to have found something that they agree on. Obama and his corporate allies in this matter seem to be running into difficulty.
2:44 PM PT: I just posted a related diary.
http://www.dailykos.com/...