Why do people say Edwards wrote PA, but don't say Kerry wrote NAFTA?

[AP]

As far as I can tell, they're contributions were the same. They sat on committees responsible for reviewing those respective bills. With the PA, it was a case of getting a draft bill from the justice department, on which DoJ demanded a vote within four days, but the committee spent a month eliminating the worst parts, watering down other parts as much as possible, and inserting a few good things (like the sunset provision) despite the risk of being accused of being anti-national security in the wake of 9-11.

I'm not sure what Kerry has to say about the trade bills. But, his committees did produce lots of things that were in those bills. Did he "author" NAFTA? Did he "work on" NAFTA?

[DenverDem]

1. Plenty of folks are calling Kerry out on "Free" Trade.

It's the main reason I question his candidacy.

[JI7]

2. nobody is denying he supports nafta

[AP]

3. But why aren't they defending him for the NAFTA bills he wrote?

Nobody's denying that Edwards voted for the PA either, by the way. But when he says he doesn't like parts of it, critics say, "but he wrote it" (which isn't true).

So, when Kerry says he wants to see changes to NAFTA, the logic perpetuated by the argument about Edwards and the PA, seems to be, "but he wrote NAFTA!"

Now, does that make sense? No. Then why does it make sense that Edwards wrote the PA?

[JI7]

8. not sure

but kerry is being criticized all the time for his positions because they aren't as black or white as some wish them to be. like iwr and other things. i don't think it was really kerry supporters who went after edwards on this so i don't know. maybe because those who went after edwards on the pa supported a candidate that supported nafta so going after kerry on nafta wouldn't have really worked.

[AP]

11. I think it actually says something about Edwards supporters.

They're not going to make a none-sensical argument about Kerry just because the same argument is being made about Edwards, which is the point of my post.

[pezcore64]

4. yeah

yeah really, people need to know they both suck.

[AP]

6. You need to spend an afternoon in bankruptcy court if you think any

democrat sucks.

[Cuban_Liberal]

5. Look at who's saying it.

Therein lies your answer, AP.

[coloradodem2005]

7. Didn't Edwards write the sunset clauses in the PA?

I think that is the part he had a lot to do with, which would be a mitigating factor for him.

[AP]

9. I don' think he "authored" any of the language in the PA, but he was on

the committee which worked hard to get that provision and other sensible provisions INTO the bill, and many of the worst things OUT of the bill. They couldn't get all the worst stuff out, so they put in the sunset provision just in case.

[revcarol]

10. Except....the sunset provision doesn't apply to the whole bill...

some of the most egregious parts are NOT sunseted.

Contact the ACLU and they will tell you.