I'm disappointed…

…of course, with the passage of CAFTA, and especially with the fifteen Democrats who broke partisan ranks and led to the agreement's final passage. I'm particularly disappointed to see the name of the upper left's own Norm Dicks on the list of fifteen, but not, I suppose, particularly surprised.

One thing you have to keep in mind is where he's from. Dicks' district has lost a lot of jobs in industries like logging, fishing and millwork. Today, the battle cry that's made him consistent favorite for reelection - 'Norm Dicks Works For Jobs' - means that he works as hard as he can, and cuts any deal he must, to protect the military bases and the federal and port jobs left in his district. With a major container port, another port primarily occupied with ship building and repair and all the associated trade-related employment in WA-6, the parochial pressures on Dicks ultimately, if unfortunately, overwhelmed the partisan pressures.

Of course, there are various voices calling for various sanctions against the offending fifteen. Minority Leader Pelosi has raised "the likelihood that defectors' committee assignments would be reviewed at tonight’s meeting of the Steering Committee." Elsewhere, there's grumbling about withholding donations to Dicks & co., or mounting primary challenges as punishment for their CAFTA votes.

Frankly, it's hard to imagine anyone mounting a successful primary challenge to Bremerton's favorite son, the former Husky football hero and porkmeister supreme for the people of the 6th for over a quarter of a century. Outside the possibility of caucus sanctions of some sort, it's unlikely that Norm's going to pay any real political price for his CAFTA vote, and that vote's actually going to sound like a pretty good one to a lot of the home folks.

In the end, I expect Norm Dicks, CAFTA or not, will be on the November ballot in '06, and I expect he'll win. Overall, I think that's a good thing. Take a look at the record. I'll take a whole House full of folks with an 85% record of supporting Americans For Democratic Action and learn to live with it. And CAFTA or not, I'm betting the AFL-CIO would settle for a Congress full of folks who only vote with them 93% of the time.

Norm Dicks and his 'free' trading friends were wrong on CAFTA, and there's nothing wrong with saying so, but the solution to our problems isn't throwing over 15 Democrats, it's electing 50 more.