Vote-buying bazaar reports profit

In the July 27th Cafta's Benefits editorial, the Wall Street Journal lamented the shame that "the Bush Administration has had to hold a vote-buying bazaar" to pass CAFTA. However, it appears from Gregg Hitt's piece ("Last-Minute Deals Put Cafta Over the Top," WSJ, July 29, 2005, p. A-4) that the bazaar continued after the polls had closed. CAFTA passed 217-215 after one representative, Mr. Robin Hayes, changed his vote late at night long after the 15 minutes allocated to the vote.
The House of Representatives deserves a reprimand for allowing voting beyond the allocated time. This House deserves reproach to incite and to allow switching of recorded votes. Outside the House, those practices would be unacceptable and perhaps illegal. Imagine allowing Broward Co., Florida, residents to vote the day after the first Tuesday in November or to change the vote after voters in the rest of the country had cast their ballots. The procedural maneuvers used to pass the bill certainly have the appearance of impropriety; in retrospect they appear as artful dodge. A principled House would repudiate the CAFTA vote.
CAFTA will be a disaster for the sugar economies of Central America and the Dominican Republic. Having subsidized high-fructose corn syrup replace cane sugar, in which they have a clear comparative advantage, will have consequences that will haunt the U.S. for years. CAFTA will be known as free trade more in the mockery than in the observance.