Andres Oppenheimer of The Miami Herald, in a public service, has done us all a favor by identifying the Dirty Dozen of the new congress, the creeps who would keep free trade from enriching and helping the nations of the Americas.

These are the poverty-enforcers, the anti-Latin Americans, the rust-belt oppressors, hobbled by their own wilfull ignorance of economics (I can’t even excuse that ignorance, there is no excuse for that kind of unwillingness to know about the benefits of trade in this day and age).

These are the dogs who would keep Latin America down, keep it out of our markets and keep Americans isolated from interaction with them. They are the enemy. Look for Hugo’s dollars to find their way into some of their campaign coffers, because I sure will.

I can’t stand them.

They should be held up to every public scorn as the ‘trade neanderthals’ that they are. Oppenheimer came up with a good phrase that ought to stick. Here they are:

1. Sherrod Brown, senator, Ohio. Rust-belter who led the effort to keep Central America out of America’s markets and throw it into the arms of Hugo Chavez. Desperately wants to keep Colombia and Peru down. Wrote a rotten book putting his ignorance on full display in ‘The myths of free trade.’ Has no idea what he’s talking about.

2. Max Baucus, senator, Montana. Once a good guy, until he fell into the pockets of corporate special interests from the sugar-beet lobby, which desperately wanted to avoid competition from Central America. Disgraced himself. Now, with sugar-beet money keeping him hopping, he’s out to destroy Central America. A bum.

3. Nancy Pelosi, House speaker, California. Hates free trade so much she didn’t even want Chile, leftwing Chile, homeland of Marin-County-based leftist author Isabel Allende, to get any. For all her carping about China’s human rights record, which is bad, she is right there in China’s pocket, helping China out by keeping all of Latin America – even leftwing Chile – out of America’s markets. Being a San Francisco Democrat, she’s also in the pocket of the public service employees’ unions, the most communist in the nation. Her China hypocrisy is going to need to be exposed, she’s reason numero uno for why China has such a good deal on trade at Central America’s expense.

4. Charlie Rangel, powerful House Ways & Means chairman, NY. Just got done insulting Mississippi. If he hates even them, you can bet he has no affection for Central America. Has a large Dominican constituency but given the choice between them and union thugs with more money, he’ll take the union thugs. Scumbag.

5. Harry Reid, Senate Majority Leader, Nevada. Voted against all free trade measures, whether for Peru, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Chile, Honduras, Nicaragua, Dominican Republic, Panama, Guatemala, he hates them all, wants them shut out of U.S. markets. Look for China influence in this guy’s pockets, too.

There are 11 others, Oppenheimer says, and I am going to try to find out who they are and what their problem is.

For now, read Oppenheimer’s excellent post here.