Bush Names Teamster Leader to Trade Panel

WASHINGTON (AP) – President Bush, who has tried to woo organized

labor into the Republicans’ political camp, on Wednesday named Teamsters

President James P. Hoffa to an administration advisory panel on trade.

Bush also named Paul Beckner, president of the conservative Citizens

for a Sound Economy, a group that advocates lower taxes and less

government, to a two-year term on the Advisory Committee for Trade

Policy and Negotiations.

The large panel is made up of industry and labor leaders who give

advice to U.S. negotiators as they pursue new trade agreements with

other nations.

The White House has made reaching out to organized labor,

traditionally allied with Democrats, a priority.

The Teamsters and the United Brotherhood of Carpenters are among a

handful of conservative-leaning unions that Bush and his advisers have

targeted since taking office almost two years ago.

Hoffa, for instance, was a guest of honor at Bush’s State of the

Union speech last year and worked with the White House on efforts in

Congress to open an Alaskan wildlife refuge to oil drilling.