Showing that not learning the lessons of the last election occurs on our side of the aisle too.
Because Tom Friedman keeps saying "just wait another few months" on Iraq, many have started referring short-hand to "Friedmans" as time periods of doing the same thing that people in Washington perpetually ask the public to accept as our country goes down the drain. A "Friedman" is the political version of the mantra from the movie the Money Pit where the builder keeps telling Tom Hanks to wait "just another two weeks" before everything is OK. Now, as President Bush this week asks Congress to reauthorize his "fast track" authority to negotiate trade deals with no labor/enviro/human rights standards, the Wall Street wing of the Democratic Party is on the Hill begging Congress to accept the demand in order to let our current trade policy "work" for a few more Friedmans.
[..]I can't say that I am shocked that the same people who told us NAFTA, WTO and China PNTR would help the country are now frantically running around trying to get lawmakers to keep going along for more Friedmans, no matter how much these trade deals have hurt ordinary workers, and no matter how strong a fair trade mandate the 2006 elections were. The question is whether Democrats will once again believe the propaganda the Wall Street/Clinton wing keeps selling, or whether they will put their foot down?
