FOLLOW THE MONEY:

Congress' shift on trade (ANDRES OPPENHEIMER, 9/09/07, MiamiHerald.com)

Wow! All of a sudden, it looks like the Democratic-controlled U.S. Congress will approve pending free-trade agreements with Peru, Panama and -- who knows -- perhaps even Colombia.

If you ask me, Venezuela's narcissist-Leninist leader Hugo Chávez deserves the biggest credit for the congressional U-turn. [...]

[N]ew reports about Chávez's petro-dollar diplomacy -- more than $8 billion in pledges to the region so far this year -- is probably just as big a factor, as it should. At a time when Venezuela, Cuba, Ecuador, Bolivia and Nicaragua are openly building an anti-American bloc with outside allies such as Iran, many in Washington are no longer looking the other way. Thanks, Hugo!

If the reversed votes are a function of dollar diplomacy it's more likely because corporate interests here are buying them. Which is terrific.

Posted by Orrin Judd at September 10, 2007 5:25 PM