"moderate" Republican U.S. Rep. LaTourette lies on his CAFTA flip-flop

[Algorem]

http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/news/1123666682291740.xml&coll=2

LaTourette's CAFTA vote: He's either been duped or is not being honest'

Wednesday, August 10, 2005

-- KraftMaid builds kitchen cabinets in Middlefield, and for that it needs wood.

So when U.S. Rep. Steve LaTourette said he suddenly learned that the company had been socked with tariffs on Central American plywood -- and that they jeopardized the company's jobs in Ohio -- he decided to vote for a controversial trade pact to eliminate those tariffs.

"Absolutely," he said after the vote two weeks ago, confirming that his motivation was solely to protect KraftMaid jobs.

One problem: No U.S. company has to pay tariffs on plywood from Central America, according to trade records reviewed by The Plain Dealer and interviews with industry and trade officials...

[mama]

1. Glad the PD for checked this out...

Lots of his constituents are dismayed by LaTourette's in-your-face betrayal.

"He's either been duped or is not being honest," Lori Wallach, a Washington trade lawyer, said of LaTourette.

Notice that the misleading information originated from U.S. Trade Representative Rob Portman's office and that the chairman of Kraftmaid's parent company is a huge RNC donor.

Sure is good to see our local newspaper doing a little research.

[Kolesar]

2. Cash and carry politics

But KraftMaid is owned by a larger corporation, Masco Corp., whose Michigan-based chairman is a major Republican donor. Richard Manoogian donated $115,000 to the Republican National Committee and its affiliates between 2002 and 2004, as well as $4,000 for Bush's re-election, records from PoliticalMoneyLine show. He has stayed overnight at the White House as a guest of Bush, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
...snip...
LaTourette was unavailable this week because he is on vacation, his office said. Attempts to reach him last week were also rebuffed because he was in Alaska on a congressional trip and, his office said, could not be reached.
...end...
Isn't Alaska the home of the chair of the House appropriations committee? Maybe Latourette is there to collect a payback for selling out Ohio labor. I expect he will get another bridge. A new rail-trail would be nice, too.

[Kolesar]

6. Latourette's payback reported in the local News-Herald

http://www.news-herald.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=14995187&BRD=1698&PAG=461&dept_id=21849&rfi=8

The long-delayed, $286.4 billion, six-year federal highway and mass transit bill Congress put on the road last week exceeded President Bush's budget request by more than $2 billion, but would yield high mileage for Northeast Ohio.
Thirty-four of more than 6,000 proposed special projects were secured in the bill by U.S. Rep. Steven C. LaTourette, R-Concord Township. Funding of the local endeavors is bringing federal money back home to benefit Northeast Ohioans.
Across this area, funding would assist projects including:
n $2 million for interchange and road improvements to Route 44 in Painesville.
n $400,000 for widening Bishop Road in Willoughby Hills and Wickliffe, and replacing the bridge over Interstate 90 in Wickliffe.
n $489,600 to improve Bishop at Brainard and Wilson Mills Road in Highland Heights.
n $489,600 for intersection and road work in Chardon.
n $800,000 for Ashtabula Harbor improvements.
Perhaps the bill's biggest home run for our area would come to play in the $4.153 million earmarked to improve access and traffic at Classic Park in Eastlake, where the Lake County Captains are swinging away in their third season already.
...the republican newspaper whores for Latourette, again...
LaTourette labored to peddle these projects, so let's put the pedal to the metal in acquiring as much federal money as possible to help improve our region's quality of life - on and off the road.

[Algorem]

3. He was scheduled to be guest today on union radio show in Cleveland,

he's the guest every 2nd Wednesday of each month,but all of a sudden he's "on vacation".

http://www.awf.cc/guests.html

[blue sky at night]

4. Bookmarking this one........

need all the amunition we can get when the time comes to deselect this douche bag.

[zbdent]

5. How did this get past Alex Machaskee?

Editor of the Plain Dealer, the one who put his foot down and squelched the endorsement of a Presidential candidate in 2004 - because they did not want to endorse George W. Bush.

Must be wanting to eliminate "squishy" LaTourette and put in a foaming rabid Rightie.

Where was the coverage about LaTourette having his own little "Chandra Levy" affair during the 2004 election?

[Algorem]

7. Bush Trade Rep. rats out Republican CAFTA liar LaTourette to blog,even

Bush Trade Rep. rats out Republican CAFTA liar LaTourette to blog,even though he,Bush Trade Representative Portman,also lied to the liar LaTourette(and Congress?),on his(Portman's)official website and in documents:


"LaTourette voted on CAFTA before getting tariff report

Sunday, August 14, 2005

Stephen Koff
Plain Dealer Bureau Chief

Sunday, August 14,2005

Washington- ...

Yes, he urged Rep. Steve LaTourette to support the controversial Central American Free Trade Agreement. And LaTourette in the end did, voting with colleagues in the middle of the night and surprising scores of people who had believed him when he said he intended to vote no...

LaTourette's office said the congressman based this belief not only on a conversation with KraftMaid president Tom Chieffe the afternoon before the vote, but also on a document listing base tariffs, provided by Portman's office after the Chieffe conversation...

And so Portman, who lives in Cincinnati when not in Washington or traveling, on Friday called into "The Whistleblower," a widely read Cincinnati-based Web log, according to Jim Schifrin, the blog publisher...

LaTourette's district director, Dino DiSanto, late Friday acknowledged that LaTourette did not have the document from Portman at the time of the vote. But he said LaTourette had basically the same information because his office had looked it up on the trade representative's Web site..."

http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/news/1124011919318730.xml&coll=2&thispage=1