Update: The House voted today to pass the President’s bill so it is now the “law of the land.” (Actually the President still has to sign it. He will probably throw a f#!%ing party.) Alberto Gonzales now gets to approve surveillance without any court oversight. So much for defending our democracy and our Constitution. The Democrats in Congress are a bunch of wimps.
From this morning:
Maybe we need to form a new party whose members have the courage to do the right thing. I am so disgusted with the Democrats in the Senate. The Washington Post today is reporting that the Democratic Senate passed the President’s warrantless surveillance bill. That’s the bill where the AG gets to decide whether there is cause for suveillance, not the FISA court. (The same AG who has been misleading Congress recently.) Oh, but don’t worry, the law, if passed by the House, will only be effective for 6 months. Yeah right!
So while our soldiers are fighting and dying in Iraq to secure freedom for Iraqis, our representatives are giving away some of our freedoms because they want to go on vacation and are too scared to say no to the President whenever he says the word “terrorist.” (See brilliant New York Times Editorial from yesterday.) Maybe they can join the Iraqi legislature, which went on vacation for the month of August rather than figure out how to govern their country so our soldiers can come home.
I have just emailed my congressman to tell him not to vote for the Senate bill on warrantless wiretap. Everyone needs to do the same. (Addition: I just found a Daily Kos entry on this which lists the Democrats who voted in favor of the bill.)
…I mean, the “Protect America Act”. (Did Orwell call it, or what?)
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Note that the vote was 41 Democrats in favor, 181 opposed (9 did not vote) – it’s not like they all rolled over. Republicans were 186 in favor, 2 opposed (14 did not vote).
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Rather than undirected calls for a third party, how about some actual organizing to pressure the 41 Democrats who broke ranks? How about replacing more Republicans? I don’t think we need to lose more activists to third parties – where they may get to feel politically purer than thou, but have little actual impact on the political process.
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How Mass delegation voted below.
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In the negative:
Capuano, Frank, Lynch, Markey, McGovern, Neal, Olver, Tierney
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Not voting:
Delahunt
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Full roll call here.
I was being facetious about starting a new party. In any event, it is not just the 41 Democrats (I assume you meant House Democrats) who voted for the bill who made it possible for the President’s bill to pass. The leadership in both houses also made it possible for the bill to pass, or I should say lack of leadership. (Harry Reid is particularly incompetent.) The Democratic members and leadership in the Senate and the House decided to let this bill pass because they are clueless about how to conteract the Republican attack machine. They were afraid of what the Republicans would say about them during the August recess. How pathetic!
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BTW, the New York Times has another editorial today about the failure of the Democrats in Congress to lead.
The Boston Globe also has an editorial today about this issue.