Eni's Left Wing Views Exposed

Cynthia McClintock, a radical left-wing political science professor at George Washington University testifed last week at a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing on U.S. - Latin American relations. Earlier she also had written President Obama to urge him to respect the new popular, leftist movements that have sprung up in Latin America in the past decade. At the hearing, among other things she advocated reconciliation with Cuba, and decriminalization of marijuana and cocaine, which she said she realized put her in the minority.

When she found no enthusiasm from either Democrats or Republicans for her views, she skipped a number of points in her prepared presentation including opposition to the Columbia Free Trade Agreement (CFTA) on human rights grounds. When asked afterwards why she skipped over CFTA she said: “I hesitated to bring it up because the overwhelming view was in favor of it, and I was already controversial enough.”

According to the Campus Progress blog, "The only Democrat who may have been sympathetic to her views was Eni Faleomavaega (D), the representative of American Samoa. But Faleomavaega has no binding vote on the committee, and he left the hearing early anyway."

Of course, the blog is wrong. Eni does have a full vote on the committee but the blogger is right that Eni, himself on the lunatic fringe, would have been this lunatic left-wing professor's only champion. Perhaps that's why he slipped out (unless he needed to catch a plane).

Even though he quietly withdrew from the Progressive Caucus about four years ago, it was for political--not ideological--reasons. A critic here at home raised his membership as a campaign issue since the group's leftwing social agenda is largely at odds with Samoan (and Mormon) values. Eni no doubt thought it better just to continue to hold his views but not telegraph them.

Make no mistake about it: Eni remains firmly in the Nancy Pelosi-George Miller-Maxine Waters-Barney Frank wing of his party. All the others but Pelosi (who withdrew from all caucuses when she became Speaker) are card carrying Progressive Caucus members.

Read more about the hearing here: CampusProgress