"This is a strange tack for Schumer to take"
Keep in mind that Schumer's audience is the American Constitution Society, which was recently created as an answer/offset to the Federalist Society, which now has 4 members on SCOTUS.
The dems have identified the Federalist Society as the cornerstone of the VRWC. The dems have also recognized that while there are actual card carrying members of the Fed Soc, there are also stealth federalists such as Judge Janice Brown and AG Alberto Gonzales. Whenever you see the dems try to prevent confirmation of a Bush nominee, or attack one of Bush's employees, the underlying justification for their action(tho they won't admit it) is the individual's membership, or stealth membership, in the Federalist Society.
Social Conservatives tend to look at these Judges in light of social issues such as abortion, and the dems do also. But the dems have a much wider conspiracy theory involving the VRWC and the Feddies.
The dems think that the GOP is using the Free Trade Agreements(NAFTA, CAFTA, the bilaterals, and eventually FTAA) to establish a Western Hemispheric wide set of regulatory laws that is in direct conflict with the regulatory laws that the dems have established in the US beginning with FDR and the New Deal. Their theory is that once the GOP has the hemispheric reg laws in place, a SCOTUS with 5 Feddies will rule that all the dem's reg laws in the US are un-constitutional. You will often hear the dems say that Bush, the GOP, the VRWC, and/or the Federalist Society are trying to "roll back the New Deal" or "roll back the 20th century".
This is why the dems have told Bush that he will have to re-negotiate the pending FTAs with Peru, Columbia, Panama, and S. Korea to include regulatory protections for the unions, the environment, and social justice. If the dems can take the presidency next year, they will try to re-write NAFTA and CAFTA to include the same protections.
Does Soros have anything to do with the American Constitution Society? Let's see: George Soros proclaimed that he founded the "shadow party" in 2002.
"As of 2004, an alphabetical list of Shadow Party groups included the following: Air America Radio; America Coming Together; America Votes; American Constitution Society; American Federation of Labor - Congress of Industrial Organizations; American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees; American Federation of Teachers; Anshell Media; Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now; Association of Trial Lawyers of America; Band of Progressives; Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence; Campaign for a Progressive Future; Campaign for America's Future; Center for American Progress; Clean Water Action; Communication Workers of America; The Constitution Project; DASH PAC; Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund; Democracy for America; Democratic Governors Associations; Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee; Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee; Dog Eat Dog Films; EMILY's List; Environment 2004; Gore/Lieberman Recount Committee; Hotel Employees & Restaurant Employees International Union; the Human Rights Campaign; INdTV; International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers; Joint Victory Campaign 2004; Laborers International Union of North American; League of Conservation Voters; New Democrat Network; The Media Fund; Media Matters for America; Million Mom March; Moving America Forward; MoveOn.org; Music for America; National Association for the Advancement of Colored People; NARAL Pro-Choice America; National Education Association; National Grassroots Alliance; National Jewish Democratic Council; National Treasury Employees Union; New American Optimists; New Democrat Network; Partnership for America's Families; People for the American Way; Phoenix Group; Planned Parenthood; Pro-Choice Vote; Service Employees International Union; Sheet Metal Workers International Association; Sierra Club; The Thunder Road Group; United Food & Commercial Workers Union; United Progressive Alliance; USAction; Vagina Votes; Voices for Working Families; Vote for Change; Young Voter Alliance; and 21st Century Democrats."
http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/groupProfile.asp?grpid=6706
It looks like you are way ahead of the curve
“This is why the dems have told Bush that he will have to re-negotiate the pending FTAs with Peru, Columbia, Panama, and S. Korea to include regulatory protections for the unions, the environment, and social justice.”
That’s certainly interesting speculation on your part - the rats don’t want international scumbag bureaucrats writing illegal law because the rats want to protect federal bureaucrat sumbags illegally writing law.
If you can provide any links to your speculation, I’d be most interested in reading it.
I find the whole matter of bureaucrats illegally writing law an affront to our right to vote, via the ballot box, for representatives to write law. In fact, I consider bureaucrats writing law to be a crime of sedition, and judges and legislators who allow it need to suffer the most severe punishment allowed by law.