Daley: Dems' opposition to trade authority 'politically stupid'

Bill Daley, former chief of staff to President Obama, made the case on NBC’s “Meet The Press” this morning for congressional Democrats to end their opposition to fast-track trade authority for the president.
A decidedly pro-business Democrat throughout his career, Daley said that if Democrats don’t resurrect a deal over the next few days, they will wound the president and hurt the party’s chances in 2016, much as Republicans on Capitol Hill damaged the GOP in 2007-08 by pulling away from President George W. Bush.

Daley, who served as Commerce Secretary under Bill Clinton, said a defeat for Obama on TPA would hurt the president’s standing in the world. He also asserted that if Obama is viewed as a commander-in-chief who can’t get international agreements through Congress, that would give the green light to the Iranians to take a much different approach at the negotiating table regarding a nuclear deal.

Daley concluded his interview with MTP host Chuck Todd by declaring that if Democrats continue on their current path regarding the TPP trade agreement, that would be a “politically stupid thing to do.”

It should be noted that the underhanded methods used by Big Labor on Friday to sabotage the deal have largely been overlooked by the Capitol press corps.

Labor leaders were so determined to sink this ship that they rounded up Democratic votes to torpedo the one portion of the legislation that Democrats almost universally agree on – TAA assistance for displaced workers.
Russell Berman of The Atlantic, who sees little chance that TPA can be revived, laid out the sequence of events on Friday after it appeared Obama had secured enough votes:

“…. The labor movement was not prepared to give up. Instead, it caught the administration off guard by launching a surprise attack on legislation known as Trade Adjustment Assistance, a program designed to help workers displaced by trade and one which Democrats—and organized labor—have overwhelmingly supported in the past. Just 40 House Democrats—less than one-quarter of the caucus—voted for the bill, which fell in a landslide, 302-126. By defeating the aid measure, the labor movement rendered the administration’s careful work rounding up votes for Trade Promotion Authority largely irrelevant.

“… Once it became clear that Obama had secured enough Democratic votes to join most Republicans in passing TPA, the AFL-CIO took the astonishing step of announcing it would urge its progressive allies to oppose TAA as well. Because Republicans typically oppose the assistance piece of the trade package, the loss of Democratic support doomed the bill, and with it, the entire trade measure.”