Ron Wyden close to deal on 'fast-track' trade legislation

[Jim Lane]

9. It's not completely clear-cut.

The deal was cut (your headline "close to" is already out of date). As you'd expect of a compromise, it has a lot of bad points, but at least it's somewhat better than what the unholy Obama/Boehner alliance was pushing.

In any such situation, you have to think about your batna -- best alternative to negotiated agreement. If Wyden didn't agree to this, there was presumably at least some danger that the original horrible proposal, backed by the top leaders of both parties, would be approved.

Deciding whether Wyden made the right decision would entail assessing the prospects for the Obama administration's version, and also assessing whether there was negotiating room to cut a deal that was better than the one Wyden got. I don't know enough about the specifics to make those calls.

Based on Wyden's record, I have confidence that, if it were completely up to him, there wouldn't be any kind of fast track. He recognized, though, that it's not completely up to him.

My bottom line is not to blame Wyden but to blame Obama. He's the one who put Wyden in this situation in the first place. I don't regret voting for Obama twice but this goes a long way toward sapping my enthusiasm.