July 28, 2005 -
Pundits and advocates are now surveying the CAFTA carnage, and it's not pretty. Tales of brutal arm-twisting and last-minute favors -- especially in the 47-minute period when the House had to suspend debate as GOP leaders "convinced" waverers -- abound.A curious story about the vote also popped up today: Rep. Charles Taylor, Republican member of the North Carolina delegation that resoundingly voted against CAFTA, was recorded as a "no vote." But according to a statement put out by his office today, he was actually a "nay":
July 28, 2005 -
Since CAFTA passed the House by just one vote this morning -- 217-215 -- you can point to any one of the "ayes" as the "deciding vote." But as we predicted yesterday, the most gripping drama was in the South, where enough Southern Reps were big enough question marks that they could effectively extort dozens of
July 27, 2005 -
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July 27, 2005 -
As Congress gears up for a vote tonight on the Central American Free Trade Agreement -- with Texas Rep. Tom DeLay promising a win -- the heart of the fight is in the U.S. South. As the Raleigh News & Observer reported on Monday, the region just isn't going for it:
July 27, 2005 -
There's been a small flurry of stories lately about skyrocketing pay among corporate execs. The New York Times, for example, recently reported that the average corporate CEO made $9.84 million in 2004. You can find out more about the issue here.
July 27, 2005 -
Across the country this morning, dozens of newspapers -- including, unfortunately, my own Raleigh News & Observer -- were disgraced with an particularly execrable editorial by John Leo.
July 26, 2005 -
In 2004 the Southern Baptist Convention withdrew from the World Baptist Alliance (which it helped to found in 1905), accusing the loose global federation of anti-American bias and (even worse) liberalism.