Clinton's Sugar Daddy Games: Mary Landrieu and her constituents have some bitter demands.

Wall St Journal ^ | 12-20-02 | Mary Anastasia O'Grady

[SJackson]

In her testimony to the grand jury Monica Lewinsky offered an interesting aside: In the middle of a "meeting" with her, Bill Clinton took a phone call from Florida sugar baron Alfonso Fanjul.

That little detail didn't make the tabloids but it raised eyebrows among free trade advocates. The easy access to an otherwise engaged president reaffirmed the suspicion that sugar growers -- who keep Washington sweetened with their political giving -- had disproportionate influence in the Oval Office. In 1999 Mr. Fanjul raked up a million dollars for Mr. Clinton's party at a fund-raiser on his estate.

[afz400]

The American sugar lobby is the main reason we have never had the guts to stand up to Castro. Cheap sugar from Cuba would ruin the fat cat over-priced, subsidized, crooked, mafia-like American sugar growers. So much for standing up for freedom. Both political parties should be ashamed, but I suppose they aren't because they fat cat, subsidized, crooked, mafia-like Americans themselves.

[battlegearboat]

"they fat cat"

"that they are"

which inspires a short spontanious poem...

"They fat cat

that they are

tip caddies big

to make par."

[Alberta's Child]

It's tough to criticize Landrieu and the sugar industry after the Bush administration's disgraceful capitulation to the steel and lumber industries.

On a positive note, it appears that U.S. lumber producers are getting screwed by the very softwood lumber tariff that was supposed to protect them. Canadian lumber mills that are forced to pay a 19.3% tariff on lumber exported to the U.S. have decided that the only way to overcome that higher cost is to increase their production substantially and reduce their unit costs through economies of scale.

When the 19.3% tariff is eventually eliminated (and it will be -- Canada has won this dispute every time it came up before an international trade board), there won't be too many lumber mills left in the U.S. because the Canadian mills, which are now selling cheaper lumber WITH the tariff in place, will have the advantage of the improved efficiency as well.

Oh, and all the revenue the U.S. collected on that tariff over the last two years will have to be paid back to Canadian producers. So the U.S. won't have the lumber industry jobs, and they won't have the tariff revenue either.

F#cking morons.

[NYDave]

Don't forget that the Fanjul brothers are Cubian expatriots. The FL ex-pats are rabidly anti-Castro and the importation of any Cuban sugar is not just an economical issue but a political one as well.

[Mamzelle]

Well, sugar is already plenty cheap! The answer, go on a locarb diet. Eat more chikun.

[chit*chat]

So the U.S. won't have the lumber industry jobs, and they won't have the tariff revenue either.

But the spotted owl will have a home. /sarcasm

[lilylangtree]

Wondered what was the secret to Mary Landrieu's just barely squeezing by her Republican opponent. Another demoRAT ploy of the best defense is a good offense. What better way to accomplish a deed than by Landrieu blaming her opponent of what Landrieu was guilty of.