Newt Gingrich

Newt Gingrich (R-GA) can thank the Democrats for catapulting him to the Speaker of the House of Representatives following the recent elections. The present Speaker, Tom Foley (D-WA) lost his seat to a Republican neophyte whom Gingrich raised money and campaigned for intensively.

But in 1990 with Gingrich on the political ropes, Foley refused to raise any money for Democrat David Worley who lost to Gingrich by only a thousand votes. The reason for Foley cutting Worley off from any television ad money was that he was criticizing Gingrich for supporting the huge Congressional Pay Grab that year. Foley had made a deal with his Republican counterparts to cut off any member of their own Party who raised the Pay Grab issue in any Congressional campaign.

Now Gingrich is the House leader and Foley is looking for a job.

But also now the overwhelming hypocrisy of Newt Gingrich becomes front and center stage for all to see.

Gingrich campaigned for Republicans throughout the country on a platform that calls for a balanced budget, decentralizing power from Washington to Peoria, and restoring power to the people. A cruel joke!

Usually politicians who win elections in November at least wait until January before they start betraying you on behalf of their corporate masters. Gingrich will start doing that before the end of this month with his support of U.S. entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO) during the upcoming Lame Duck Session of Congress.

With Gingrich leading the Republicans to vote for the WTO, the future House Speaker shifts power from Washington to Geneva, Switzerland, goes along with the Senate that has to bust its budget deficit control law by $31 billion before it can vote on the WTO, and makes possible the foreign regulation of America.

Here is how the World Trade Organization agreement with over 120 nations as members makes Gingrich say one thing and do the opposite. He wants the United States to become a member with only one vote and no veto power. Any two little dictatorships overseas can outvote the U.S.

In addition, Gingrich is supporting the WTO’s secret tribunals whose trade judges can rule in favor of a foreign country’s claim that one or more of our federal, state and local laws are restricting imports due to our generally higher health, safety and workplace standards — as in food safety or pollution standards.

These tribunals are closed to press and citizens, make no public transcripts and permit no independent appeals. They are like kangaroo courts.

The U.S. is likely to be a frequent defendant precisely because our living standards are higher than most countries and can be hauled to these Geneva tribunals for allegedly keeping out less safe cars, food, clothing, medicines, chemicals and other products.

If the U.S. loses before these tribunals — and there will be many such cases brought judging by Japanese, European and Canadian reports earlier this year listing many allegedly offending U.S. federal and state laws — our country will have to either repeal the law(s) or pay perpetual trade fines or other sanctions. Incidentally, the burden of proof is on the accused defendant country.

So instead of devolving power from the federal government to the states, Gingrich favors an autocratic world government, indentured to global corporations, over our federal government. We can throw the rascals out in Washington; we cannot do the same in Geneva.

Over 100 million American voters stayed home on November 8th. Less than 40% of the voters went to the polls. If you do not let your Senators and Representatives know about where you stand on the upcoming Lame Duck Congressional session vote on the WTO, you won’t have any polls to go to when the Geneva tribunals render decisions that you don’t like.

A Lame Duck Session includes legislators who have been defeated or who have retired. Many are negotiating or already agreeing to jobs with the very corporate interests that have a stake in giving the U.S. a vote only equal to that of Singapore, Iceland or Cuba. This is too important an issue of damaging American democracy and sovereignty for a Lame Duck Session.

The vote should be deferred until the new Congress convenes. And the vote then should be a rejection and transmittal of the trade agreement back to Geneva to renegotiate in the interests of working people, consumers and the environment.