I haven’t dealt much with the Central American Free Trade Agreement, leaving the heavy lifting to those who know more about trade policy than I do, but last night’s vote was interesting for reasons that go beyond what was obviously a bad piece of legislation.
The House, as it always does, set a 15-minute time limit for lawmakers to register their votes. Most of the chamber registered took a side — and the bill had lost, 180 to 175. But that wasn’t the end; it was the beginning.
The House narrowly approved the Central American Free Trade Agreement this morning, delivering a hard-fought victory to President Bush while underscoring the nation’s deep divisions over trade.
The 217 to 215 vote came just after midnight, in a dramatic finish that highlighted the intensity brought by both sides to the battle. When the usual 15-minute voting period expired at 11:17 p.m., the no votes outnumbered the yes votes by 180 to 175, with dozens of members undeclared. House Republican leaders kept the voting open for another 47 minutes, furiously rounding up holdouts in their own party until they had secured just enough to ensure approval.
This has become something of a habit with these guys. In 2003, when Bush’s Medicare scheme came to the House floor, Republican leaders kept the vote open for three hours, cajoling, threatening, and even offering bribes to lawmakers in order to eke out a victory.
Though the Republicans would probably prefer we forget, in 1987, then-House Speaker Jim Wright (D-Tex.) kept a floor vote open an extra 15 minutes to get a desired vote. At the time, Republicans acted as if he had shredded the Constitution. In fact, a Republican congressman named Dick Cheney denounced the move as “the most arrogant, heavy-handed abuse of power I’ve ever seen in the 10 years that I’ve been here.”
That was then. Last night, Cheney was on the Hill, orchestrating the process. No word on whether he found the proceedings “heavy handed,” “arrogant,” or “abusive.”
Also keep in mind, DeLay and Hastert held the vote in the middle of the night — when they’re ashamed, they prefer to avoid the light of day — and twisted some Republican arms until they “[broke] in a thousand pieces.”
The Washington Post described the negotiations on the House floor as resembling the “wheeling and dealing on a car lot.”
Republicans who were opposed or undecided were courted during hurried meetings in Capitol hallways, on the House floor and at the White House. GOP leaders told their rank and file that if they wanted anything, now was the time to ask, lawmakers said, and members took advantage of the opportunity by requesting such things as fundraising appearances by Cheney and the restoration of money the White House has tried to cut from agriculture programs. Lawmakers also said many of the favors bestowed in exchange for votes will be tucked into the huge energy and highway bills that Congress is scheduled to pass this week before leaving for the August recess.
It’s quite a crew we have running the House, isn’t it? They’ve identified the ways to govern in the most honorable way possible — and they’ve done the exact opposite.