It’s kind of amusing to see that the political coverage of the campaign is proceeding as if the FISA bill capitulation never began and is not ongoing. RealClearPolitics’ only mention is a Moonie Times editorial on how great the FISA bill is. Mark Halperin’s The Page has no mention of it at all, although he does note the unusual circumstance that both John McCain and Barack Obama are left-handed. Matt Drudge has no mention of FISA on his homepage. This is one of the subtle ways that the corporate media is able to do the bidding of corporate interests. If they don’t cover something, it doesn’t exist. Yet, it should be a news story in and of itself, that the same blogosphere and the same activists that were lined up so strongly for Barack Obama in the primaries are now criticizing him loudly.
A pundit might want to at least try his or her hand at pondering the potential significance of such a development. Just last week, Obama endorsed Rep. John Barrow of Georgia and cut a television advertisement for him. Yet, that same representative is now the target of a Netroots’ campaign to elect his primary challenger Regina Thomas. ActBlue shows that over 1,000 activists have donated a combined $28,000 to Thomas’ campaign, and that is just through their site and doesn’t include the over $300,000 that has been raised by Blue America to oppose proponents of retroactive immunity and the expanded police-state domestic surveillance powers. Much of that money will be targeted at Rep. Barrow as well.
It’s easy to dismiss opponents of the FISA bill as just some fringe leftists and libertarians. But it won’t be easy to dismiss a primary loss for Rep. Barrow. And that is a real possibility.
John Barrow’s voting record in Congress “is the worst of all the Democrats,” state Sen. Regina Thomas said Saturday.
Thomas, challenging fellow Savannah Democrat Barrow in the July 15 primary election, talked with reporters following a candidates forum.
“Did we send a Democrat to Congress four years ago, or did we send a Republican?” she said after the Georgia Association of Black Elected Officials event. “When we send people to Congress, if people tell us they are a Democrat or a Republican, we expect them to act that way.”
How are Democrats in Barrow’s district going to feel about this argument?
Thomas also challenged Barrow on another issue – the House’s vote Friday for a compromise eavesdropping bill. It would provide a shield from lawsuits for telecommunication companies that participated in the Bush administration’s warrantless wiretapping program.
“My opponent voted in favor of that act with Bush and the Republicans,” Thomas said.
The vote ended a partisan standoff over rules for domestic wiretapping in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks.
Barrow said the bill “strikes the right balance” between providing tools needed to fight terrorism and protecting “the freedoms we stand for.”
He said more than 100 House Democrats, including House Majority Leader Stony Hoyer, D-Md., voted for the measure.
News reports indicate that 105 Democrats joined 188 Republicans in supporting the bill, which passed, 293-129.
In any case, Thomas remains opposed.
“The government can spy on people. It can wiretap them without them knowing it,” she said. Government officials “are violating the Fourth Amendment’s (constitutional) right to privacy. They are using terrorism as an excuse so they can find out what people are … saying.”
The Savannah Morning News can discuss it, but the corporate news aggregators apparently cannot.