WASHINGTON -- I cannot help but remind everyone that I thought President George W. Bush made a bonehead decision when he imposed the quotas on imported steel a couple of months ago. I said it was a mistake for him politically, both domestically and internationally. I said it would destroy his hopes of providing leadership in the world to further lessen trade barriers. And I keep being proven correct.

Now comes a report that the steel quotas are hurting here at home. Steel prices have spiked dramatically. Imports are down. The market is the tightest it has been in 15 years, and prices for the most popular forms of steel used in manufacturing are about 30 percent higher than last summer.

In other words, the president's effort to assist one industry, steel, is hurting many other manufacturing companies that employ many more workers than do the steel companies. Whatever favor he won with the steel makers and their employees is now being offset by the anger of other manufacturers and their employees, whose jobs are now on the line because of the presidential action.