We begin this hour with the stinging rebuke President Obama suffered today from members of his own party.Democrats in the House of Representatives managed to block legislation that would have given him fast-track authority to finalize a big Asia-Pacific trade deal.This happened despite a flurry of last-minute lobbying by the White House, including a rare presidential visit to Capitol Hill.NPR's Scott Horsley starts us off.President Obama was counting on a coalition of strange bedfellows to pass the fast-track bill.Instead, an even stranger coalition was the measure's undoing.Democrats, who ordinarily support relief for workers whose jobs are hurt by a foreign competition,voted down a measure that would provide just that kind of help.And because that worker assistance is joined at the hip with the trade negotiating bill, that effectively put the brakes on fast-track.Obama had urged Democrats not to resort to that kind of parliamentary gamesmanship.But California Congressman Brad Sherman argued the worker assistance bill was their only leverage to bring down the trade package.What's the good of having a little bit of trade adjustment assistance if we lose millions of jobs because we put them on a fast track to Asia?In a dramatic, last-minute floor speech, House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi also urged her colleagues to vote down the trade package.Up until today, Pelosi had been silent on where she stood.Many Democrats in the House applauded as Pelosi's opposition to the trade deal became clear.For these, and other reasons, I will be voting today to slow down the fast-track to get a better deal for the American people.
