The Famous Double G, the legal eagle, the yeoman worker of yeoman’s work on all matters legislative and constitutional, is bummed about FISA.
How far we’ve come — really: disgracefully tumbled — from the days of the Church Committee, which aggressively uncovered surveillance abuses and then drafted legislation to outlaw them and prevent them from ever occurring again. It is, of course, precisely those post-Watergate laws which the Bush administration and their telecom conspirators purposely violated, and for which they are about to receive permanent, lawless protection.
He’s got every right to be bummed about it. I’m bummed myself, but Glenn sums up why every American should be pretty goddamn pissed off right now, regardless of party affiliation, race, creed, sex, bowling average, favorite Beatle, whatever. It’s worth framing this one.
There’s a temptation, particularly on days like today, to talk about what motivates “Democrats” — as though they’re a monolith acting collectively with the same drives. They’re not. Some do what they do because their only concern is a craven desire to be re-elected. Others believe in one thing but are afraid to vote that way (because they’ll be called Soft on Terror, Liberal, etc.), while others still are influenced by Beltway money and other cultural pressures. Some are motivated by a combination of those motives.
But a large number of elected Democrats vote in favor of the radical Bush agenda for a very simple reason: they believe in it. Despite the glorious “D” after their name, their views are materially indistinguishable from the defining ones of the Bush faction on the key issues. A huge portion of Congressional Democrats are members of the corrupt, bipartisan Beltway political establishment first, and everything only follows that, and they thus embrace and support the values of that establishment.
That’s why Bush has won and — even with “Democrats in control of Congress” — continues to win most key votes. The fault lines in the Beltway aren’t primarily between Republican and Democrat but between those who support the core values of our political establishment (as reflected by the Bush administration) and those who don’t. Through a bulging coalition of both Democrats and Republicans, the pro-establishment forces have a strong, clear and easy majority, and that’s why the most radical Bush measures continue not only to prevail, but — as today — do so easily.
And of course, G-Dawg is right.
The fundamental problem, the Big Truth, is that the bad guys in Washington are not all Republicans. They’re politicians. It’s nice to see Glenn finally arrive at this conclusion, because many of us have felt that way about Nancy and Harry’s crew for the better part of a year now.
The joy of 2006 has given way to the reality of 2008. They are not on our side. They are not passive enablers. We can’t equivocate or demure or finagle or justify it anymore with excuses or scenarios or guesswork. We must Sherlock Holmes this down to the core: when all other explanations have been eliminated, whatever hypothesis remains, however unlikely, must be the truth.
And the Big Truth is that the Democrats are corrupt. and have been for some time now. Maybe not as corrupt as the Elephant Graveyard, but they are still fundamentally creatures of the establishment.
That doesn’t leave us with a lot of options, but the preponderance of evidence is there, look who voted for telecom immunity.
Final passage in the Senate of the Cheney/Rockefeller bill was 68-29. 19 Democrats joined all Republicans to vote in favor of warrantless eavesdropping and telecom amnesty: Conrad, Rockefeller, Baucus, Webb, Kohl, Whitehouse, Bayh, Johnson, Bill Nelson, Mikulski, McCaskill, Lincoln, Casey, Salazar, Inouye, Ben Nelson, Pryor, Carper, and Landrieu. Neither Obama nor Clinton voted on final passage.
When you vote to give the worst President in history the power to absolve large corporations (and by extension himself) of all guilt for breaking the law in what should be considered the most raw and naked and impeachable offenses in American history, you are not a good guy. You are throughly disgusting and corrupt. You are not a good human being. You are not, above all, an American.
And that brings up the really really Big Truth. Clinton and Obama, who dodged the question completely. That disturbs me even more that neither one had the conviction to vote no on this most heinous of bills. And one of these two wishes to be our President?
At least we know where McCain stands, which is firmly on the side of the establishment. He talks a good talk, but the fact of the matter is he’s an older, madder, more belligerent and warmongering version of Bush. His record in the last several years clearly reflects that, and he’s not ashamed to admit it. I respect McCain more for voting yes than I do Obama and Clinton not voting at all.
Obama and Clinton however seem to think they should be able to get a pass on this, to play the cards close to the vest, on the issues of the plenary executive and their almighty powers.
You don’t get to do that. Not in 2008. That is THE single most important issue to me, to America, and the world in general. Everything that has gone wrong in this country can be traced back to the idea of unlimited power and zero accountability that the establishment believes is invested in the office of President by nature of its very existence as the office of President.
When given the clear opportunity to say “no more”, to display the leadership and abilities needed to most qualify as President after the Bush power grab, both of our champions in the Democratic party dropped the ball. They chickened out. They showed an unwillingness to truly LEAD this country when it was called for on a no brainer issue of what it means to BE President, as opposed to dictator or maximum leader.
That to me immediately disqualifies either one of these people to be President of the United States of America. Period. Voting to stop this travesty from proceeding would have been the best single action either one could have done to stop the avalanche that is turning America into a police state.
The damage done by this FISA bill may be too much for a democracy to bear. We have signed away our rights as free citizens to a state that only provides fear and instruction. When the time came to put those campaign slogans and brilliant stump speeches and policy platforms to the actual test as legislators, both Obama and Clinton said “sorry, can’t help you there.”
Well, fuck em. Seriously. This registered independent is writing in Somebody Who Would Have Voted Against Unitary Executive.
I don’t want to hear about how I’m only going to empower President McCain by not voting. We deserve it. We were given an opportunity to say “no more” and instead we said “four more”. As far as I’m concerned, we’re looking at four more years of Bush’s policies on the executive branch no matter who is in the White House come January.
Does anyone here really, really expect either Obama or Clinton to roll back these powers, to not assert Bush precedents in the Justice Department, and to rescind telecom immunity as President? In all honesty, does anyone here think that will be done, that Hillary or Barack will go on TV and announce “I’m giving myself less power as President and returning it to Congress and the Constitution?”
No. Because when given the opportunity to do just that, they did nothing instead. That is not leadership. If doing nothing is good enough for the new President, it’s good enough for me.
