Over the rest of the day, and perhaps into tomorrow, we will be watching an elaborate dance whereby Democrats pretend to defend our rights or be ‘concerned’ about this or that abuse of power. At the end of the debate they will pass a law that grants retroactive immunity to telecommunications corporations and they probably will expand warrantless wiretapping…making what has been illegal for 30 years, legal.
To be clear, they didn’t have to do this, but they wanted to do it. There are some good Democrats. Document their good acts. But, more importantly, document the bad Democrats. They must pay for this.
You can watch from work at C-SPAN2.
Feinstein is going to talk about retroactive immunity…
She also has filed an amendment co-sponsored by Rockefeller, Bill Nelson and Leahy. The amendment is to make FISA the only and exclusive means of collecting electronic surveillance.
Good Democrats:
Boxer – D/California
Brown – D/Ohio
Cantwell – D/Washington
Cardin – D/Maryland
Dodd – D/Connecticut
Feingold – D/Wisconsin
Harkin – D/Iowa
Kerry – D/Massachussetts
Menendez – D/New Jersey
Wyden – D/Oregon
Surprising on Cantwell. As a Washington native, she is typically NOT a Good Democrat. The last time she took a stand on anything positive was when she stood up to the ANWR drilling. And she’s not up for reelection until 2012, I think. Very strange. Good…but strange, she’s pretty pro-corporate in general. Still, she loves to pay for war.
Thank you Sherrod Brown. You continue to do the right thing for me and all the rest of your constituents.
You are defending our Constitution. There is no higher calling for an elected representative.
Do you have a link to the vote anywhere? I’m curious to know who the 14 are who didn’t vote. Are they all Dems, or were there some Republicans in the mix as well?
I ask because I’m curious how many Dems actively voted for this crap, rather than just didn’t come in and vote. I know Clinton and Obama are off on the campaign trail, what about McCain? Also, I’m surprised not to see Sanders on that list of 10 – did he not come in today to vote? I’d find it hard to believe he’d vote for cloture.
I’d be curious to see the vote as well.
One thing to keep in mind is that on a cloture vote, it isn’t the ‘No’ votes that are important, it is the ‘Yes’ votes. They need 60 ‘Yes’ votes to invoke cloture and end debate; thus not voting is functionally equivalent to voting ‘No’.
Here is the roll call vote:
http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=110&sessio
n=1&vote=00435
Senate vote 435
Tester and Webb both voted against the fourth amendment. Let’s remember this the next time the orange frat house assures us that a candidate is progressive.
Thanks for the link.
And this confirms my suspicions – far more than half of the Dems voted for cloture, because these folks were listed in the “not voting” group:
Allard (R-CO)
Brownback (R-KS)
Coburn (R-OK)
Craig (R-ID)
DeMint (R-SC)
Gregg (R-NH)
Inhofe (R-OK)
Lieberman (ID-CT)
McCain (R-AZ)
And the following Dems/Indeps:
Biden (D-DE)
Clinton (D-NY)
Lautenberg (D-NJ)
Obama (D-IL)
Sanders (I-VT)
So – 9 Republicans not voting (well, 8 and 1 “Joe for Joe” Senator). That means that 35 out of 49 Democrats voted for cloture – effectively voting for telco immunity. 70% of the Dem representation in Congress is in favor of telco immunity. Whether they vote against it later or not is irrelevant – this is the vote that mattered.
And nice of Clinton, Obama and Biden to show leadership here, eh? Why weren’t they joinging Dodd in twisting arms and calling in favors from their fellow Senators? Is it lack of leadership or just that they want the telco immunity to pass? Regardless, another nail in the coffin to prove that these “leaders” are anything but.
And no, Sanders did not vote. Curious.
Whatever the reason Durbin is not on your list of good Dems. You could document whatever atrocities you want.
Durbin is a helluva Senator and any of you would be happy to have him.
Will this make people shut-up about impeachment. You can’t pass something like this, you think you could impeach.
So my advice is, keep whining, or run and win an election.
Durbin will be reelected by 70%. So your whining will do nothing.
He is the number one villain in this matter.
We need to make sure he is sent home when he is up for re-election. his ratings are tanking in Nevada, and that needs to be leveraged. We need to destroy his career.
Bob Casey’s office was very unfriendly when they heard from me, but he begins to pay TODAY.
We have an email list of about 800 Philadelphia Democrats, all of them informed voters, many members of DFA, Philly For Change, MoveOn, and other advocacy groups. I have sent them the following email:
due to some procedural questions, I held off on sending the aforementioned email out. I have little faith in the Democrats at this point and suspect this is an empty “yes-on-cloture-no-on-alito” gesture.
in all likelihood, it goes out next week.
Every Democratic senator, when you see him/her in their states, ask them if they will support Dodd for majority leader. They won’t commit, but it will have a real effect if they are personally approached on this one.
if you do have a chance to personally meet with your Democratic Senator, and/or Senate candidate, and have a chance to ask them about supporting Dodd for majority leader, write a diary about their response. It would be good to start collecting responses.
Dodd is the man today. I love it when he yells and calls bullshit on the telecoms: “Not all of them did what the government asked. Some of them told the government to come back with a warrant. And those that want to clamin that they were just doing their patriotic duty by cooperating, their legal departments weren’t made up of first-year law students.”
Ted Kennedy is a flaming putz, voting to proceed and then pretending he doesn’t agree with the bill. Do they really think we’re all fooled?
There is something wrong here. Kennedy, Durbin, Byrd, Whitehouse, Leahy??? Sanders not voting?
What am I missing? What does Kennedy think he knows that Kerry doesn’t? I don’t think the usual bribery applies here, so what the hell is going on? I’ll be calling Durbin to tell him to fuck off, but first I’d like to be sure I’m not just being a loose cannon.
PS — It’s also interesting that Gollum Leiberman missed this chance to yet again parade his anti-democracy passion.
What you’re missing is that Reid isn’t acting alone, but at the insistence of his caucus. And, once he makes a decision to go forward with debate, members of the leadership like Durbin are obliged to go along. And that people like Kennedy are just voting for regular order and normal procedures of the Senate (i.e., taking up first the version that was submitted first). There are a whole host of reasons why people voted for cloture…but they are idiots.
That’s begging the question. I don’t think idiocy is the answer. Kennedy doesn’t have to worry about money or reelection. He really believes it’s OK for the telcos to help Bush spy on Americans? And Byrd thinks so too? And the rest. I can’t buy that. It’s some kind of fear, but I can’t figure out of what.
with all die respect, and acknowledging the many disappointments l’ve had w/ kennedy over the years, l don’t think that you can pin that ‘he really believes it’s ok’ tail on him.
esp when he says things this:
l have no explanation for his actions re: the cloture vote, but l do not question his resolve or position vis-a-vis immunity.
lTMF’sA
Well, I don’t see how his voting for something he’s against makes him look better than at least voting his conscience. I hope we see that he and the others have some brilliant strategy on track to kill this bill, but I’ve hoped that way too often and have been disappointed every single time. Until that brilliant strategy is revealed, I’ll take voting over rhetoric any day.
it’s a form of Senate logic that really does translate into idiocy.
He’s respecting the institution. It’s ridiculous. Republicans never respect the institution.
If he thinks there’s still something to respect in the Senate it’s time to retire. God, I hate retro.