Meanwhile, President Honor & Dignity to the Oval Office “Sure I wanna protect big steel just show me the money” is apparently set to announce his previously implemented policy was stupid after all:

WASHINGTON (AP) – President Bush likely will lift steep tariffs he imposed on foreign steel 20 months ago …

Bush raised $850,000 for his re-election campaign at the Pittsburgh fund-raiser where one of his hosts was Thomas J. Usher, chief executive of U.S. Steel Corp., the nation’s largest steel producer. Usher met with Bush to urge him to retain the tariffs.

Brink Lindsey, a trade expert at the Cato Institute, a Washington think tank, said the package the administration was assembling to replace the tariffs amounted to little more than a fig leaf for the domestic industry.

“The existence or nonexistence of an import monitoring system is not going to make that much difference,” he said. “And the pledge on more international talks is lip service as well. The talks haven’t gone very far and they are not likely to go very far.” [Emphasis added]

Well, as long as the tarriffs weren’t a politically motivated instance of pandering to key states for the 2004 elections even though said tarriffs were sure to be ruled a violation of WTO rules, we guess it’s cool.