Hullabaloo

Saturday, March 15, 2008

 
Take It To The People

by digby


Most of you have undoubtedly already read that the House managed to pass the FISA bill (again) without corporate immunity. This is excellent news. Of course there is still the Senate good old boy club to deal with, but this time a handful of House Bush dogs stepped back from the brink and voted their party (and their constitution.) So good for them.

But this, in my view, is the real good news because it means that we can actually, finally, maybe get a mandate for the constitution in this coming election:

Lawmakers from both parties said the gulf between the administration and House Democratic leaders is now so wide that the issue may not be resolved until a new president takes office next year. Bush, who has threatened to veto the House measure, and Republicans have shown no desire to move further toward the Democrats' position, and Democratic leaders show no sign of buckling under continuous political pressure.

"I'm very uncomfortable with an issue of this importance entering such a political realm, but I don't see us pulling it out of this mess either," said Rep. Tim Walz (D-Minn.), a swing-district freshman who shrugged off a barrage of advertisements that accused him of jeopardizing national security.

Since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, such showdowns have followed a predictable path: After some protests, Democrats have given in to White House demands, fearing the political fallout as Bush hammered them for allegedly endangering American lives.

Last month, the Senate appeared to follow that script when it passed, with bipartisan support, a surveillance bill to Bush's liking after turning back the efforts of some Democrats to strip out the immunity provision and strengthen privacy protections.

Bush appeared on the White House's South Lawn Thursday to demand House passage of the Senate legislation, warning lawmakers: "The American people understand the stakes in this struggle. They want their children to be safe from terror."

Then the House went off script. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) responded by all but calling the president a liar.

"We understand our responsibility to protect the American people. What the president is trying to do is something that we think should be stopped," she said. "I am stating a fact. The president is wrong, and he knows it."

My goedness, even the Washington Post is calling it a "script." Have they been keeping that from their readers all this time, or did they have an epiphany when the Democrats decided not to read from it anymore? But whatever, it's good to see that somebody is finally writing a new script.

Walz says he is afraid of putting this into the political "mess" but the truth is that it has been part of the political mess all this time and putting this into the fall campaign means the American people can weigh in. Clearly, their representatives were incapable of simply doing the right thing and forcing Bush and these huge telcom companies to defend themselves in a court of law like any other corporation.

If the Democrats go forward and win with this issue on the agenda, perhaps they will realize once and for all that the American public is not so frightened that they will allow the government to shred the constitution at will and offer immunity for those in the private sector who help them do it.

It's the best thing that could happen, in my opinion. Democrats need to face their own fears and challenge this conventional wisdom that says they can't be rational on national security or risk losing their seats. Put it to the vote.


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digby 3/15/2008 01:00:00 PM |