I might be taking the following quote somewhat out of context, but I’m using it to demonstrate the problem with Democrats.
“If you just say you’re standing up for civil liberties, the American people are with you, but if you say terrorism suspects should have civil liberties, it stretches Americans’ tolerance,” said Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin (D-Md.), who along with [Rep. Alcee] Hastings represents Congress on the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, a human rights monitor. “It’s a tough issue for us.”
Patrick Leahy put it another way.
“People say to me, ‘Well, what about the 30-second spots?’ ” said Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, referring to attack ads.
Let me put it all in context for you.
The terrorism issue came to a head early this month in an explosive final closed-door House Democratic Caucus meeting before the August recess. Reps. Hastings, [Jim] Moran, Melvin Watt (N.C.), John F. Tierney (Mass.) and Jerrold Nadler (N.Y.) pleaded with party leaders not to bring to a vote a White House bill extending the administration’s authority to listen in on electronic communications from abroad without a warrant.
Conservative Democrats, including Rep. Allen Boyd (Fla.), argued just as vociferously that Democrats dare not leave on vacation without passing the White House bill.
“The most controversial matters are the ones that people use to form their opinions on their members of Congress,” said Rep. Lincoln Davis (D-Tenn.), who voted for the administration’s bill. “I do know within our caucus, and justifiably so, there are members who have a real distaste for some of the things the president has done. But to let that be the driving force for our actions to block the surveillance of someone and perhaps stop another attack like 9/11 would be unwise.”
Unwise for whom?
Alcee Hastings has an interesting perspective.
“I don’t think it’s that we’re reluctant to take on Bush,” said Rep. Alcee L. Hastings (Fla.), a senior member of the House intelligence committee. “I think it’s we are reluctant to take on each other. . . . If I can fast-forward to September, October, November, December and see where we’ll be, we’ll be nowhere.”
Who knows what the heck that means?
Let me be really clear. If you are a member of Congress who has taken an oath to protect the Constitution, you better allow yourself to be voted out of office before you violate your oath. Being afraid of a fascist 30-second attack ad is no excuse.
Reps. Lincoln Davis and Allen Boyd do not deserve the trust of any American. They should be swiftly voted out of office. In a primary.
If we don’t primary some of these weak-kneed Democrats we’ll deserve a reputation for having no stomach for a fight. The Republicans are a party of bedwetters, afraid of every dark person, every foreign langauage, every shadow. And, yet, these Blue Dog Democrats fall for it every time.
The Blue Dogs are forcing real Democrats, real Americans, to take them out. If you can’t stand up for our rights against a president as stupid and unpopular as George W. Bush, then you are not worthy to represent us, to lead us, or to even be spoken to in a respectful tone of voice.
