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[Gattigap]

Since we've covered much of the waterfront today already, why not re-cover CAFTA?

From Daniel Gross:

• DEPARTMENT OF BURIED LEDES
  In today's Washington Post, Jonathan Weisman writes that Democratic opposition, particularly in the House, may imperil the Central American Free Trade Agreement. It then goes on to analyze the Democrats' purported shift away from free trade--after all, plenty of Democrats supported NAFTA back in the 1990s--with quotes from plenty of New Democrats warning Old Democrats that their failure to vote for a trade pact they had no role in crafting could consign them to a permanent minority.
  
  But Weisman buries the lede. We wouldn't have such pieces, or have such conversations, if the Republicans -- who won the Congressional elections of 2000, 2002, and 2004 on free-trade platforms -- could maintain discipline on free trade. The House Republican leadership has been remarkably successful in strong-arming reluctant members to vote for items of priority to the White House about which they weren't passionate -- the Medicare drug bill, No Child Left Behind, all the budgets.
  
  But for too many members of the new Republican party's southern base, free trade -- at least as defined by CAFTA -- hits too close to home. Deep in the article, Weisman notes:
  
  "Dozens of Republicans in districts dependent on the textile industry, the sugar growers or small manufacturers have already said they will vote against the bill."
  
  That's dozens. Not a dozen, but dozens. At least 10 percent of the House Republican caucus. In the Senate, only 11 Republican Senators voted no on CAFTA--which means 20 percent of the Republican Senate caucus abandoned the party and its President.
  
  In other words, the problem for Bush and free traders isn't that they've lost erstwhile centrist Democrats on this issue. They lost them a long time ago. And they didn't even try to bring them along. As Weisman notes:
  
  “In a highly charged partisan atmosphere, Republicans intentionally marginalized free-trade Democrats during negotiations and then presented them with a take-it-or-leave it deal, goading them to oppose it, said the lobbyists, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid harming relationships on Capitol Hill. They contend that the Republicans set the trap into which the New Democrats are walking.”
  
  No, the problem for Bush and free traders is that they've lost Nancy Pelosi. It's that they can't win Susan Collins, Arlen Specter, Richard Shelby, Lindsey Graham, and John Thune.