Bush asks Pelosi to reverse course on Colombia FTA

President Bush on Saturday called on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to bring the Colombian free trade agreement to a vote, saying her move to block it is “unprecedented and extremely unfortunate.”

“I hope that the Speaker will change her mind,” Bush said in his weekly radio address. “If she does not, the agreement will be dead. And this will be bad for American workers and bad for America's national security.”

{mosads}Bush called Colombian President Alvaro Uribe a “steadfast ally” of the United States and said the attempt to block the deal sends the wrong message.

“By obstructing this agreement, Congress is signaling to a watching hemisphere that America cannot be trusted to support its friends,” Bush said.

In his party’s radio address, Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean continued to hit Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) over his economic record, referring to recent McCain comments that Dean suggested were out of touch with reality.

“Since the Republicans have occupied the White House, seven million more Americans have lost their health insurance, wages have fallen, gas prices are at record highs, and even groceries cost more than they have in the past 17 years,” Dean said. “And America has the largest deficits in our history.

”Senator McCain believes we are better off.”

McCain’s campaign has taken issue with this Democratic tack, pointing out that he qualified his remarks when he talked about ways the economy has improved during Bush’s administration.

McCain originally told Bloomberg TV: “I think if you look at the overall record and millions of jobs have been created, et cetera, et cetera, you could make an argument that there’s been great progress economically over that period of time. But that’s no comfort.  That’s no comfort to families now that are facing these tremendous economic challenges.”

Democrats have also seized on McCain’s remarks that he is not an economic expert and still needs to work on that aspect of his public service.