The more one reads about the leadership of Nancy Pelosi, the more one must come to the conclusion she is utterly incompetent. While it is expected for Pelosi to use her position to sway the opinion of House Democrats, it is not expected, nor acceptable for her to continue to use her position to prevent votes from occurring. The point of a representative government, is for the people to be represented, this can only occur when votes are taken on behalf of the people. Pelosi prefers to run the House in a totalitarian manner, with no votes taking place unless she can be certain the outcome is in her favor.

Defying the White House, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Wednesday the House will change its rules to avoid a required vote this year on a free-trade agreement with Colombia.

Pelosi, D-Calif., said the change would remove the timetable that says Congress must take up trade bills within 90 legislative days after they are received from the White House

Pelosi claims her reluctance to vote on the bill stems from harm it would cause to American families, yet the Wall Street Journal today claims the complete opposite is true:

Democrats say it would have failed anyway, but at least a vote during the next three months would have forced them to show the courage of their protectionist convictions. Instead, they chose to shelve the bill in an election year while paying off organized labor and other antitrade yahoos. The gambit is especially humiliating for Ways and Means Chairman Charlie Rangel, a free-trader who has been trying to strike a deal with the Administration but keeps getting rolled by Ms. Pelosi.

For good measure, the double-cross dismantles the only process that allows any Administration to conduct good-faith negotiations with foreign nations. No one is going to take the U.S. at its word if Congress is going to change the rules when it has second thoughts and renege.

The latest Democratic objection is that Bogotá isn’t doing enough to protect labor activists. But the murders of trade unionists have fallen by almost 80% since 2002, in part because of special protection programs, and Colombian President Álvaro Uribe has reduced other violence by nearly every measure, particularly against narco-traffickers. But any excuse will do. Yesterday Ms. Pelosi said the bill would harm “the economic concerns of America’s working families.” Yet over 90% of Colombian imports enter the U.S. duty-free, while the agreement would open the Colombian market to American goods that face tariffs as high as 35%.

So why is Nancy Pelosi against a deal which could help drastically increase American exports to Columbia, with only a neglible effect on imports? Gateway Pundit reminds us of the Democratic point man recently caught negotiating with Columbian terrorist group FARC.

A military strike three weeks ago killed Raúl Reyes, No. 2 in command of the FARC, Colombia’s most notorious terrorist group. The Reyes hard drive reveals an ardent effort to do business directly with the FARC by Congressman James McGovern (D., Mass.), a leading opponent of the free-trade deal. Mr. McGovern has been working with an American go-between, who has been offering the rebels help in undermining Colombia’s elected and popular government.

Some Democrats oppose the Colombia trade deal because they sympathize more with FARC’s terrorists than with a U.S. antiterror ally.

No wonder almost 80% of Democrats disapprove of the Democratically controlled Congress.

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Congress, Dumb Dems, Features, Politics, Terrorism