I heard from a source on Capitol Hill that House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi is pretty livid with the CAFTA 15 after they were feted by leading business associations. Apparently, she was not aware of the fundraiser until the last minute, though Rep. Rahm Emanuel, the chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, was in the loop.

Here’s what I believe about this:

I’m not sure I buy that Pelosi really was out-of-the-loop and is now irate–since Democrats have been happy to get contributions from anyone, including business, why the anger now? I think it has nothing to do with the morality–the fundraiser just makes Pelosi look bad, as if she can’t control her caucus. It’s all about politics: she is simply putting that message out to curry favor with key unions who are still seething over the CAFTA 15 betrayal.

If the information is true, it does speak to Emanuel’s role. Remember, Emanuel was a key aide to Bill Clinton and was one of the Clinton White House’s main operatives in the push to ram through NAFTA (which received over 100 Democratic votes). I had heard prior to the CAFTA vote that Emanuel had put out the word that he personally could not vote for CAFTA because of his DCCC position but he would try to round up pro-CAFTA votes. Which would explain why he did know of the CAFTA 15 business fundraiser.

But, Nancy, if you are so pissed, you can do something about it: punish the CAFTA 15. Back in August, a group of New York labor leaders asked Pelosi to remove two of the CAFTA 15, Ed Towns and Gregory Meeks, from their positions on the Financial Services and Energy and Commerce Committees. Pelosi can do that today, as well as demote any of the other CAFTA 15 from other key positions.

Another step would be to remove any of the CAFTA 15 from the “Frontline Candidates” list–which is a special fundraising project to support Democrats who face particularly tough races; Melissa Bean (Illinois), William Jefferson (Louisiana), Jim Matheson (Utah) and Dennis Moore (Kansas) are all in the Frontline program. In any case, unions should refuse to give to that fund until the CAFTA 15 are dropped as beneficiaries.

Because here is something to consider: why should labor get excited about supporting Frontline Candidates? If the Democrats take control of the House (which, though still an uphill climb, seems somewhat plausible given the slide in Bush’s popularity) and the CAFTA 15 are re-elected, what does that get workers? Some of the CAFTA 15 also voted for the awful bankruptcy bill and not a few Democrats support the repeal of the estate tax. Since any possible Democratic majority is likely to be slim, what exactly would change on policy on trade, bankruptcy, taxes and the war when key votes come up if you have people like Melissa Bean and Jim Moran in the Democratic caucus?