Democrats Cave on FISA
19 June 2008 3:25 pm by Taylor Marsh
BY TAYLOR MARSH
What a shock.
Senator Russ Feingold, a leader among spinelessness:
“The proposed FISA deal is not a compromise; it is a capitulation.
The House and Senate should not be taking up this bill, which effectively
guarantees immunity for telecom companies alleged to have participated in
the President’s illegal program, and which fails to protect the privacy
of law-abiding Americans at home. Allowing courts to review the question of
immunity is meaningless when the same legislation essentially requires the
court to grant immunity. And under this bill, the government can still sweep
up and keep the international communications of innocent Americans in the
U.S. with no connection to suspected terrorists, with very few safeguards
to protect against abuse of this power. Instead of cutting bad deals on both
FISA and funding for the war in Iraq, Democrats should be standing up to the
flawed and dangerous policies of this administration.”
We simply have no Congress. It’s there to check and balance the executive.
It’s not happening. They’ve made themselves irrelevant.
It’s cowardice pure and simple.
We’re waiting
to hear from Senator Obama:
Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., was among the most vocal opponents of immunity
in the Senate debate last year.The Electronic Frontier Foundation’s Bankston applauded Obama for his opposition
to immunity for the phone companies, and he said he would “call upon
him to be as vocal as possible on immunity in the coming days.”A spokesman for the Obama campaign didn’t return phone calls or emails seeking
comment for this article.
Via Greg Sargent, and what has progressives screaming, is Obama
has cut an ad for a Blue Dog Democrat Rep. John Barrow who pushed Pelosi
for telecom immunity, among other anti progressive ideas like a no “cut
and run” ad on Iraq.
Sorry, but get a clue. Obama is not an ideologue. How many times did I write
that over the course of the primary season? He’s going to support an incumbent
Democrat over anyone else, including a progressive opponent, because Obama believes a sure conservative Democrat
in the House beats any conservative Republican, or a long shot. It’s what Pelosi did against
Donna Edwards by backing Wyn. Good news on that one is that Edwards won, so
it can happen. But Obama isn’t going to put his weight behind an outsider or into progressive partisan politics. I know people
don’t like it, but Obama never telegraphed anything other. Again, he’s not a strong
ideological Democrat. He’s going to back the guy that already has the power.
That some are just waking up to this and bitching about what was foretold seems
a bit, well, clueless late to the party.
But what the Congress is doing on FISA is unbelievable. No, I take that back.
It’s very believable. It’s just unacceptable. Hey, but what else is new?
Glenn’s got an
analysis of the FISA bill. Read it and weep.
