Dana Perino: 'Three to tango'

by Mark Silva and updated

The White House today denied that President Bush was suggesting any trade-off when he discussed with President-elect Barack Obama his interest in winning a Colombia Free Trade agreement in the context of getting some emergency aid to the ailing American auto industry.

"We just want to make sure that we let everybody know that the president did not suggest a quid pro quo,'' Dana Perino, the White House press secretary, said today, "but he did talk about the merits of free trade in hopes that the next administration will recognize that not only is that good for our businesses -- especially if you want to create jobs, one of the best ways to do that is to open up new markets for our businesses and our entrepreneurs...''

John Podesta, co-chairman of Obama's transition team, concurred today: "While the topic of Colombia came up, there was no quid pro quo... The president didn't try to link Colombia to the question of an economic package going forward.''

"The president supports the free trade agreements on their merits,'' Perino said. "hen it comes to a second stimulus package, what I have told you for a week or so is that so far we have not seen something that would stimulate the economy right away. We want to promptly help the economy, and the best way for us to do that is to implement the rescue package that we are currently doing to help improve the credit markets. That's at the root -- that's the root cause of our problems.

"Some of the other suggestions that have been floated by Democrats wouldn't put a lot of money into the economy right away. If you want to stimulate the economy, that would be the test that we think that you would have to pass. We're willing to listen to their ideas of how they would like to move forward; open to suggestions as to what they think needs to be done.

"But what we really also need to see them do is to talk with their Republican counterparts, because it does take three to tango in this town, and there's a House and a Senate. There are a lot of Republicans who need to be heard on this because they can help push something forward, or not -- they could also prevent something from going forward. So we'd like to see them actually exercise some of this bipartisanship that they're talking about.''