Major CAFTA Victory; Where is the Dem Whip?

Great news and terrible news today from CongressDaily (sorry, no link as it is subscription only and was e-mailed to me):

THE GOOD NEWS: The newsletter reports on a major victory for progressives today, as the House New Democrat Coalition has come out against the Central American Free Trade Agreement. The group, "which has been courted for months by pro-CAFTA business groups," thankfully decided to come out in defense of America's middle-class, and oppose this corporate-written pact. Let's be clear – this has at least something to do with progressives' renewed willingness to pressure moderate Democrats to start standing up for ordinary people. The New Democrats were hammered for supporting the credit card industry-written bankruptcy bill, and this is a terrific sign they are starting to go in a much better direction. They should be roundly applauded for their announcement today. Special thanks should go to Rep. Ellen Tauscher (D-CA), who CongressDaily reports not only is she opposing the deal, but will whip other New Democrats to oppose it (as this earlier Hill Newspaper shows, Tauscher clearly hates me personally – and that's just fine, as long as she's doing the right thing).

THE BAD NEWS: The newsletter also reports that "House Minority Whip Hoyer said Tuesday in a news conference that no decision had been made as to whether the Democratic leadership would whip against" CAFTA, even though he admitted most Democrats were against the deal. Hoyer, you may remember, refused to whip Democratic opposition to the Bankruptcy Bill, and supported the Australian Free Trade Agreement, even though that supposedly "free" trade pact included drug industry-written provisions preventing Americans from importing cheaper medicines from abroad. Some folks have lately been calling for Hoyer's resignation from his leadership position (I'm not sure if that's warranted, as Hoyer has been a solid lawmaker for years). And his unwillingness to take a stand even at this late hour is disheartening. If he ultimately doesn't whip on this bill, that will only fuel those calls for his resignation. Let's hope he gets in line and starts doing what he was elected to do: lead.

For background on why CAFTA is so bad both for Americans and Central Americans, see this earlier post and this post.