Ron Wyden’s Lonely Crusade

Disapproval trails Democratic Senator Ron Wyden these days. Over the past few months, he’s become the White House’s chief congressional ally on free trade, helping President Obama, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, and U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman push for a bill to streamline the passage of trade deals. That’s alienated liberal activists in Oregon, his home state, who show up at the senator’s public events flying a 30-foot-long blimp that says, “Ron Wyden: It’s up to you. Don’t betray us!”

In the Senate the shadows are cast by members of Wyden’s own caucus: Minority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, Dick Durbin of Illinois, Chuck Schumer of New York, and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, all of whom oppose giving the president “fast-track” trade-promotion authority, which limits Congress’s ability to modify trade agreements the administration negotiates with foreign governments. “The answer is not only no, but hell no,” Reid said in a Capitol Hill press conference on April 21. His advice to Wyden: “Slow this thing down a little bit.”