ustxtxb_obs_1993_10_01_50_00003-00000_000.pdf

MATT WUERKER THE TEXAS server OCTOBER 1, 1993 VOLUME 85, No. 19 FEATURES In Defense of Tolerance By David Wilhelm 7 Hazing NAFTA By Robert Bryce 8 Gored Oxen By James McCarty Yeager 12 Who Spiked Single Payer? By James Ridgeway 13 DEPARTMENTS Editorials: Perot v. NAFTA; Polluters Pact; Limits of Justice; Kay Hutchison’s Wild Ride 2-6 Molly Ivins 7 Journal 16 Books and the Culture Travels With Lizbeth Book review by Steven G. Kellman 17 Death Penalty on Trial Book reviews by Julie Rigby 18 Dazed and Confused Movie review by Steven G. Kellman 21 Political Intelligence 24 Cover art by Valerie Fowler eled to Mexico and tried to buy anything, you quickly learned not to accept the first offer that someone gave you,” it’s obvious that this guy has never bought cheese at Soriana. Not only are the stereotypes Perot uses to advance his argument odious, they erode his credibility. \(And so many ‘of NAFTA’ s provisions already have been unilaterally enacted in Mexico that the cheese you find in the dairy section at Soriana is likely to be proPerot’ s attack on Washington is the standard fare of his campaign, in which he criticizes American lobbyists hired to represent the interest of the Mexican government. “Foreign agents” he prefers to call them, and reminds us that their ranks include a former Lloyd Bentsen aide from the Senate Finance Committee and Tony Anaya, former Democratic governor of New Mexico. But he raises an important issue \(previously raised in that the Mexican government has paid a huge sum of money to Washington lobbyists, investing some $30 million in the effort to win Congressional approval. Perot and Choate also question the hurried pace of negotiations, which were designed to conclude just as George Bush kicked off his presidential campaign in the summer of 1992. And they take a critical look at the advisory committees that laid the groundwork for the negotiations. The careful reader will separate grain of fact from the chaff of polemics and conclude that what has happened here has been too much and too fast. The White House’s rebuttal that 20 hours in each chamber of Congress is sufficient to discuss a 1,100-page agreement that few in Congress have yet read only supports that conclusion. As “this NAFTA” in Congressman Richard Gephardt’ s attack on the agreement implies, it’s time to go back and negotiate another one. Perot and Choate agree, insisting that it is the only reasonable course left to pursue. The White House rebuttal that Mexico would not renegotiate the treaty ignores a fact that Mexican government officials understand: With no treaty they have already lost, by unilaterally opening up their economy; they would have no choice but to negotiate. Warren Christopher knows that. At the time he was named Secretary of State, he sat on the board of directors of SCEcorp when it acquired substantial interest in a Mexican utility company once the exclusive domain of the Mexican government \(the same Mexican utility whose refusal to use modern environmental equipment will mean a 60 percent loss of visibility in the Big Bend The full 25 pages Perot and Choate devote to a discussion of “What’s in NAFTA?” make this book, which is not exactly a page-turner, a buy at $6.95. Where else to find a chapof NAFTA? If you answer “in the White House talking points,” you’ve failed the NAFTA test. Buy Ross’s latest book. L.D. Corrections In the book review, “The Crazy Life,” August 20, “non-Mexicans” should have read “nonMexican-Americans.” We regret the eror and note that there were several editing changes in the text with which the author disagreed. Due to an typesetting error, the Observer of September 17 incorrectly stated that W.E.B. DuBois died in China. He actually died in Ghana. Due to a typesetting error, a September 17 book review incorrectly identified one of the authors of Barton Springs Eternal as Marshall French. His name is Marshall Frech. THE TEXAS OBSERVER 3