Peru Free Trade Agreement Passes Senate

The Senate has just approved the Peru Free Trade agreement 77-18, with the 5 presidential candidates not voting

Although this bill was by far the most labor and environmentally friendly free trade agreement ever negotiated by the U.S. (thanks to the insistence of the Dems on the House Ways & Means Committee, Bush was forced to renegotiate it to be more labor and eco-friendly; otherwise, they'd have voted it down), it still had some problems, leading Change to Win, Public Citizen and many other progressive groups opposed it. The AFL-CIO took no position.

John Edwards, in particular, has been vocal in opposing this agreement


1. The Clinton campaign just yesterday issued a fiery statement stressing the importance of a legislators duty to vote. It would've been nice to see them hold that position for a full 24 hours.
2. The Senate is full of traitor DLC Vichy Dems!
3. The Democratic Senators first elected in the fall of 2006 voted quite well; 7 of 10 of them opposed it. Bob Casey, Sherrod Brown, Amy Klobuchar, Claire McCaskill, Jon Tester, Bernie Sanders, and Sheldon Whitehouse all voted NAY.
4. The other Democratic Senators were terrible; only 11 of 40 of them opposed it.


But the most important question: What the hell is with Jim Webb's vote?

He made economic fairness a central tenet of his campaign. He released an ad in the primary denouncing his opponent, Harris Miller, as the "anti-christ of outsourcing."

And yet he's one of the few to vote for this bill?