Clinton: I Differ With Bill on Trade - AP

WillyT

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Wed Apr-09-08 01:14 PM
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Clinton: I Differ With Bill on Trade - AP

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ALIQUIPPA, Pa. (AP) — Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton said Wednesday she has a long record of differing with her husband on trade policies, a critical issue as she and Sen. Barack Obama pursue Democratic voters who fault international deals for U.S. job losses.

The New York senator said she will do all she can to defeat the Colombia Free Trade Agreement, now before Congress, even though her husband and her recently demoted chief strategist Mark Penn have worked for it.

Bill Clinton, who championed deals such as the North American Free Trade Agreement during his presidency, pushed Democrats to be more open to low barriers to trade. But many labor union leaders and others blame such pacts for job losses, and Obama and Hillary Clinton have criticized them in their bid for blue-collar voters in Pennsylvania and elsewhere.

Pennsylvania holds its primary April 22, and it is a must win for Clinton who trails Obama in delegates and votes.

"I have a long record of being on a different attitude toward trade than my husband does," the New York senator told reporters after speaking at a high school near Pittsburgh. "I don't think any married couple I know agrees on everything. And we disagree on this."

Asked if she has discussed the Colombia trade proposal with her husband, Clinton replied, "Oh, we talk about everything."

She said she opposes the plan, which President Bush supports, "because of the history of suppression and targeted killings of labor organizers in Colombia."

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More: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jgTupmKfKbwd5BiA8L-IGzDkmnlAD8VUG4BO0

Really Hillary ???

What is the proper word for the claim by Hillary Clinton and the more factually disinclined supporters of her campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination -- made in speeches, briefings and interviews (including one by this reporter with the candidate) -- that she has always been a critic of the North American Free Trade Agreement?

Now that we know from the 11,000 pages of Clinton White House documents released this week that former First Lady was an ardent advocate for NAFTA; now that we know she held at least five meetings to strategize about how to win congressional approval of the deal; now that we know she was in the thick of the manuevering to block the efforts of labor, farm, environmental and human rights groups to get a better agreement. Now that we know all of this, how should we assess the claim that Hillary's heart has always beaten to a fair-trade rhythm?

Now that we know from official records of her time as First Lady that Clinton was the featured speaker at a closed-door session where 120 women opinion leaders were hectored to pressure their congressional representatives to approve NAFTA; now that we know from ABC News reporting on the session that "her remarks were totally pro-NAFTA" and that "there was no equivocation for her support for NAFTA at the time;" now that we have these details confirmed, what should we make of Clinton's campaign claim that she was never comfortable with the militant free-trade agenda that has cost the United States hundreds of thousands of union jobs, that has idled entire industries, that has saddled this country with record trade deficits, undermined the security of working families in the US and abroad, and has forced Mexican farmers off their land into an economic refugee status that ultimately forces them to cross the Rio Grande River in search of work?

As she campaigns now, Clinton says, "I have been a critic of NAFTA from the very beginning."

But the White House records confirm that this is not true.

Her statement is, to be precise, a lie.

When it comes to the essential test of the trade debate, Clinton has been identified as a liar -- a put-in-boldface-type "L-I-A-R" liar.

From: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=132&topic_id=5221553

:banghead:

:wtf: