Union leaders met with Nancy Pelosi yesterday to discuss, among other things, the Colombia "Free Trade" Agreement.

It was pretty cool when George Bush threw a lame duck temper tantrum and tried to "fast track" the agreement, and Pelosi fired back with a procedural vote that stripped the timeline requirement and effectively tabled the bill. No doubt Preznit Rumplestiltskin was putting his foot through every floor in the White House over what that woman dared to do:

Mr. Bush, in a statement, denounced the House move. “Today’s unprecedented and unfortunate action by the House of Representatives led by Speaker Pelosi to change the rules governing legislation to implement our trade agreement with Colombia is damaging to our economy, our national security, and our relations with an important ally,” he said. “It also undermines the trust required for any administration to negotiate trade agreements in the future.”

If we don’t sign a trade deal with Colombia the terrorists will win, doncha know.

But there has been concern in the wake of Pelosi’s subsequent statement, and comments made by James Moran (D-VA), that the bill was pulled because they thought it wouldn’t pass now, and that it will be revisited after the election when conservative Bush Dogs can support it and not pay a price at the polls. David Sirota has been all over it.

After the meeting yesterday, Bill Samuel of the AFL-CIO said they felt pretty good that Pelosi didn’t intend to bring it up again in a lame duck session. The AFL-CIO has taken a leadership position in opposing the bill, in large part due to the fact that Colombian death squads have been targeting trade unionists, and more than 400 have been killed since President Uribe took office in 2002. He said that in Pelosi’s statement, she indicated that until George Bush is willing to work with Congress on addressing the problems that Americans face with regard to economic insecurity, the foreclosure crisis and healthcare, he can take his trade deal and stuff it.

While the AFL disagrees with that position — they aren’t interested in having the Colombia trade deal revisited even if Bush deals with domestic economic issues — he doesn’t think Bush will actually do it so he doesn’t think it’s going to be an issue.

It’s hard to know what’s being said to whom in order to pacify them in the situation, and a few winks and nods were obviously thrown to the Bush Dogs who have taken a lot of money to support the Colombia agreement. But if it comes up after November, it will be extremely divisive with labor interests and the Dems no longer have the excuse that Bush Made Them Do It:

One Democrat noted that the Thursday vote creates a situation in which the party could come under increased fire from organized labor if it moves ahead later this year. It would then be a Democratic decision to proceed rather than one forced upon them by the White House.

“We own it now,” said the Democrat, who did not want to be named because he was raising concerns about the speaker’s decision.

So a Democrat publicly admits that the party operates by doing things they want to do and then blaming it on George Bush. Well we knew it all along, but it’s kind of startling to hear them admit it in broad daylight anyway.

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