by Mark Silva
President Bush and Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, a couple of leaders with Harvard credentials on their resumes, met for dinner at the White House last night, a multi-course affair featuring rib-eye and punctuated with vintage wines.
Uribe, in an exchange of toasts before dinner, praised Bush as 'this warrior for the well-being of the democratic values'' and "one great leader in the fight for the well-being of democracies.''
It's telling, however, that one of the best allies whom Bush has courted in South America represents a nation with which the U.S. Congress will not ratify a free-trade agreement.
Now, at a time when Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has expelled American diplomats, Bush counts on the alliance of a friend whose government, Colombia's, has been threatened by narco-terrorists supported by the Venezuelan government.
In Colombia, the FARC terrorists refer to Chavez as the "Angel.'' In Venezuela, the megalomaniac of a president refers to Bush as the "Devil.''
The Colombian president, who pursued post-graduate studies at the same university that gave the president of the United States his master's degree in business administration, comes from the city, Medellin, which once protected one of the most powerful drug syndicates in Colombia, the Medellin Cartel, which wreaked havoc on the streets of Miami and elsewhere.
Mr. Bush has traveled to Cartagena -- a fellow dressed as Juan Valdez came around the press filing center with bags of coffee beans for the visiting reporters --- and now Mr. Uribe has come again to Washington. Uribe has managed to survive many years in the leadership of a nation allied with the U.S. in an attempt to root out the drug trafficking that once threatened to bring down his government.
Yet Bush cannot deliver the free-trade agreement that Colombia is seeking, with Democratic congressional leaders and U.S. labor union leaders unalterably opposed to the tariff-abolishing deal.
"With patience, with constancy, we will get approval of this free trade agreement. This is not the end of our relationships,'' Uribe said in toasts last night. "This is one step forward to move closer and closer in the democratic brotherhood of these two nations.''
Bush has chided the Congress for blocking the trade agreement: "Today's unprecedented and unfortunate action by the House of Representatives ... is damaging to our economy, our national security and our relations with an important ally," Bush said in April, when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi effectively signaled that the treaty was dead.
The controversy also plays out in the presidential election campaign, with Democrats opposing the agreement and Republican presidential nominee John McCain supporting it. Colombia ships coffee, fruit, oil and clothing, its biggest exports, to the U.S. free of duty. The agreement would require Colombia to eliminate tariffs on U.S. goods, with trade between the two totalling some $18 billion in 2007 last year.
But the Bush administration, in pursuit of its "freedom agenda'' and promotion of democracy, cannot deliver a trade deal to the one nation that probably has done more to cooperate with U.S. interests, in the assault on the international drug trade, than any other in South America, and has lost its diplomatic ties with the one nation, Venezuela, which represents the longest-running democracy in the region. .
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Comments
I completely agree with the sentiment expressed in this post.
Just a clarification. The person distribuing coffee was was, in fact, Juan Valdez--the Colombian Coffee Growers Federation has one person who IS Juan Valdez and is the only person who can represent their trademark.
Posted by: janet van deren | September 21, 2008 8:43 AM
Gotta love the republicans. They have their war and then refuse to pay for it. Lower our taxes, we are patriots. Who's gonna pay for it?
Posted by: bill r. | September 21, 2008 8:45 AM
Poor George.
Getting out of town isn't even an option for him any more, what with the meltdown and all.
Used to be able to go on a foreign junket when the press got really bad in Warshington.
Well, hang in there, Georgie Boy. You'll be able to ride around on the electric golf cart soon enough.
Meanwhile, the final stage of the "starve the beast" program proceeds apace.
Bankrupt the central government.
As if the disastrous never ending war were not enough to drain the Treasury.
Now, pile on $700 x 4 billion more debt on top of that.
That should "starve the beast" well into any Obama Administration.
Don't leave anything behind for education or health care or infrastructure restoration.
Cozy up to some cocaine republic official.
Pretend like, say, you're FDR and he's Churchill.
Hank and Benjy will work out the details such that Goldman and Morgan Stanley will come out smelling like roses.
So you think.
I've a notion they're going down soon as well.
Why else would Hank be working weekends and evenings?
He's trying to save his $700 million.
Posted by: ornery | September 21, 2008 8:50 AM
Pretty sad for Bush. At least he gave him a steak dinner on our dollar. Sounds like great wine too.
http://www.boppoll.com
Do you think team McCain is enjoying Bush being in the news so much?
Posted by: msgultch | September 21, 2008 9:11 AM
Typical democrats - we have a great ally in President Uribe who has done a good job in fighting the drug cartels in his country and is also fighting the next Fidel Castro living right next door to him and the democrats just thumb their nose at him with protectionist legislation. Free trade would make his country prosporous which would be the best fight against the rise of Communism in South America. Then again, this is probably the true color of the dems - communists that have to answer to union bosses.
Posted by: Terry | September 21, 2008 9:39 AM
That's Bush...... trying to spread democracy in the Middle East...... ha! And democratic values in South America. But here at home he's giving us socialism.
Posted by: rupert | September 21, 2008 10:32 AM
Words of praise from the head of a narco-state.
It's the best Bush can hope for.
Posted by: JOHN CHUCKMAN | September 21, 2008 10:47 AM
Which "Democratic Values" would those be?
Pre-emptive war? No Habeus Corpus? Government Invading your phone records? Socializing the bad debts of Wall Street?
Posted by: athena | September 21, 2008 11:45 AM
As Mark Twain observed, for someone whose only tool is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. In the same vein, President Bush has framed every initiative in the rhetoric of a war. Under his leadership, we have been looking for victory in some war or another since we had to face our own security failures on 9/11. It is a good way to approach problems because everyone can understand it, vertebrates and invertebrates alike. His language is Darwin cloaked in the rhetoric of religion. In short, it's a Crusade. We have had war or threats of war on Iraq, Iran, Al Quaeda, the Taliban, the Democratic Congress, trade unions, the Russia Army in Georgia and so on. Find a problem that confronts him and Bush will wage war on it. This is problem-solving for a man whose only tool is a gun. No wonder he prays. What happens if he loses?
Posted by: Julian Lev | September 21, 2008 12:25 PM
Thank you Mark Silva. Finally a news article that appears to be straight reporting and not the usual (infuriating) spin to slam President Bush and Republicans in general. Imagine the headline if the tables were turned and the media's golden boy Democrat was president with a Republican controlled Congress. We might be reading "Congress Refuses To Support President's Brilliant Free-Trade Agreement With Vital Allie Uribe". Enough adjectives for yah?
Straight news reporting is dead in America. What we get anymore is the media's opinions pre-digested and shoveled down our throats. Thanks but no thanks. I don't need your regurgetated gruel. I still have teeth and can eat for myself.
Posted by: Glo | September 21, 2008 1:42 PM
GOOD JOB BY URIBE?
From 136,200 hectares (a hectare is 2.47 acres) between 2000 and 2001 and the new estimate that shows approximately 157,200 hectares under cultivation in 2006"
Source:
GAO-03-319R Coca Estimates in Colombia
United States General Accounting Office
Washington, DC 20548
January 8, 2003
and
http://www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov/news/press08/091008.html
Posted by: Antonio Vieira | September 21, 2008 2:47 PM
Was Uribe in Bones, too, like Chimpy? Given the past 8 years, I have very little respect for Harvard credentials. Bush did a disservice to the Harvard MBA program. Remember, Bush is the guy who thinks its guns AND butter. (AND the private bankers' and oil buddies' private stash looted from American taxpayers)
Posted by: Vivian | September 22, 2008 8:56 AM