Having assessed the punditry, Michael Tomasky argues that conventional wisdom touting the Democratic win as a victory for moderates is, well, wrong. While, he explains, there are a handful of newly elected Democrats who might be type-cast as centrists based on demographic assumptions (think Tester), in fact there’s a unifying liberal tide beneath the surface divisions over social issues. As Tomasky notes:

Simultaneously, there was a pirouette to the left. This was not symbolic but substantive. Many Democratic winners last week, including some of the above, are strong economic populists. The day after the election, Shuler appeared with Ohio’s Democratic senator-elect, Sherrod Brown — a man whose liberalism is offered so unapologetically as to seem from a bygone age — to tout their shared opposition to NAFTA. Brown and Tester, along with Vermont’s Bernie Sanders, Minnesota’s Amy Klobuchar and (more or less) Pennsylvania’s Bob Casey Jr., make up a freshman class more economically liberal than perhaps any since 1958. – L.A. Times

That contention is due to be tested shortly, as several pending trade bills hit the floor. The Washington Post reports that Democrats are demanding concessions:

As Democrats prepare to take control of Congress, incoming leaders are planning to insert labor and environmental protections into pending trade treaties and to demand that the Bush administration adopt similar measures in future pacts it negotiates, congressional aides and government officials said yesterday.

The Democrats plan to insert restrictive provisions into two pending trade deals with Peru and Colombia, measures that would limit duty-free access to the U.S. market for goods made in those countries if factories are found to use child labor or deny workers the right to organize unions. – Washington Post

Meanwhile, a bill to “normalize” trade relations with Vietnam was withrdrawn Monday by Republicans, who blamed Democrats, despite backing from Nancy Pelosi and Charles Rangel.

A spokesman for Representative John Boehner, the Ohio Republican who is House majority leader in the waning weeks of this Congress, said there was a “possibility” that the bill could come back later in the lame-duck session. He said the bill was pulled because Democrats were turning against it.

Kevin Madden, the spokesman for Boehner, said that the majority leader learned that an effort would be made by House Democrats to send the Vietnam measure back to the committee level, and that the maneuver might succeed. He said Democrats were being pressed by labor groups and anti-trade groups that backed them in the election. – International Herald Tribune

Time will tell where the New Blue Wave is going to draw the line on so-called “free trade.” Stay tuned.

~Stef