from the current issue of Businessweek:

"...Democrats could also have complained about the corporate welfare contained in Bush's actions. Instead, the main Democratic objection is that Bush did not go far enough, that he should have enacted steeper tariffs. How sad, but the obvious explanation for the Democratic stance is that protection benefits unionized steel workers, as well as steel companies, in some politically important states. Both parties are trying to get these union votes for the upcoming November elections and are hoping that the rest of the electorate will not notice that they have been harmed."