WELL, OTHER THAN PASSING TRADE AGREEMENT AND STOPPING SCHUMER...:

The Grand Old Protectionist Party: Hey, it's not just Democrats who are killing free trade (Daniel Gross, Dec. 2, 2006, Slate)

Since the elections, concerned internationalists have fretted that the newly Democratic Congress will curtail the nation's free-trade policies. In Slate, Jacob Weisberg identified the new breed of protectionist Lou Dobbs Democrats. "So is America headed for a bout of protectionist class warfare?" worried the Economist. Washington Post columnist Sebastian Mallaby, reflecting the consensus, concluded that, "The two parties have opposing attitudes on the subject of trade: Republicans see it as a source of growth, Democrats as a source of inequality."

But these arguments overlook or misunderstand the new politics of trade. It's not a left-right split. Since 2000, Bush Republicans have done as much as Democrats to throw up trade barriers and tariffs. President Bush has generally spoken a good game about free trade, and his administration has concluded bilateral free-trade agreements with Morocco, Australia, Colombia, and several other countries. But just as free trade was a bipartisan project in the 1990s, the backlash to free trade has been bipartisan in this decade. Sens. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., share little in common except their desire to slap huge protective tariffs on Chinese goods.