Palin's Foreign-Policy Chops

Palin's Foreign-Policy Chops




By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY | Posted Monday, September 22, 2008 4:20 PM PT

Leadership: If anything shows how Democrats are beneath their office, it's how they snubbed the visiting leader of Colombia on his current trip. Sarah Palin, by contrast, shows respect.

Based on their treatment of President Alvaro Uribe, who is here to plead for a free trade pact, it's almost as if Democrats don't want the U.S. to have allies. Uribe made a rare visit to Washington, and shamefully few Democrats agreed to meet him.

Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, largely snubbed by Democrats, will meet with the more cordial Republican Sarah Palin.
Uribe didn't come asking for much — only that Congress keep its word on an agreement that will drop tariffs on American goods sold in Colombia and help his country develop and prosper as a bulwark of democracy in a battered region.

"We consider that in the coming years if the free-trade agreement were approved . . . the main economic result could be the increase in investments in our country," Uribe told the Brookings Institution.

"And the more we increase legal investments in our country, the less difficult our task to defeat terrorist groups, to defeat illegal drugs."

Uribe also heads a country that last July put its own men in harm's way to free three innocent Americans held hostage by FARC Marxist terrorists. The rescue came off without a hitch or a shot being fired.

For that alone, Uribe should get his trade pact — with maybe a ticker tape parade thrown in for good measure.

But what he's getting from the Washington establishment is a lot less. President Bush did extend a warm welcome on Saturday, and Uribe also met with Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez and some CEOs in Atlanta.

But Democrats did all they could to slight him, generally hiding and making lame excuses for doing so.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who arbitrarily iced Colombia's free trade deal last April, refused to meet Uribe and didn't acknowledge a White House invitation to an event in his honor. Later, her staff regally complained that Uribe didn't call her.

This is part of a pattern. For years, Pelosi has insulted, slighted, road blocked and now ignored Uribe, the most valuable ally the U.S. has ever had in Latin America. Her motives are constantly shifting.

One minute she's complaining about human rights abuses in Colombia, despite an 86% drop in the murder rate of union activists. Then she says it's all about passing stimulus packages first. The common thread is serving Big Labor special interests at election time.

This is what passes for Democratic leadership these days. Uribe urged nonpartisanship in considering Colombia's case for free trade, but lesser Democrats were just as craven and irresponsible as Pelosi.

Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama only grudgingly permitted Uribe to talk with him by telephone, afterward disclosing no news about why he still opposes cutting tariffs on American goods to Colombia as the free trade pact provides. Nor did he make any public statements, seemingly to make the call go unnoticed.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who's fond of junketing to the luxury locales in South America, had no time to repay the hospitality to Uribe. And two Democrats held out as Latin experts, Sen. Chris Dodd of Connecticut and Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico, couldn't give Uribe the time of day.

Some pro-free-trade Democrats, including Rep. Gregory Meeks of New York, were notable exceptions and did welcome Uribe. But none of the Democrats billed as foreign-policy heavy hitters could see that the implications of snubbing Colombia send a message to the region that it pays more to be America's enemy than its friend.

Into the vacuum, however, has stepped in Gov. Sarah Palin. The supposedly foreign-policy-challenged vice presidential candidate asked to meet with Uribe on Tuesday in New York to support our ally.

As chief executive of Alaska, Palin knows what it's like to deal with a Congress that dismisses her state as distant, lectures it on ecological virtue and then denies its citizens development. She understands perfectly how it must feel to be Uribe, who's gotten the exact same treatment from a Washington establishment.

Palin's reception of Uribe is a far more serious statement than Obama's visits to the tourist spots of Europe that he chalked up as foreign policy experience.

Palin's meeting with Uribe shows a commitment to American interests over Washington politics. Thank goodness Palin knows how to act when an important leader and true friend comes calling.



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