There is a passage in today’s WaPo article on the Senate capitulation on FISA that demonstrates how little Democrats understand of the power of the Congress to do nothing:
An adroit Republican parliamentary maneuver ultimately sank the bill. GOP leaders offered a motion that would have sent it back to the House intelligence and Judiciary committees with a requirement that they add language specifying that nothing in the measure would apply to surveilling the communications of bin Laden, al-Qaeda or other foreign terrorist organizations.
Approval of the motion would have restarted the legislative process, effectively killing the measure by delay. Democratic leaders scrambled to persuade their members to oppose it, but with Republicans accusing Democrats of being weak on terrorism, a “no” vote proved too hard to sell, and so the bill was pulled from the floor.
Stacey Bernards, a spokeswoman for House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.), called the Republican maneuver “a cheap shot, totally political.”
Caroline Fredrickson, director of the Washington legislative office of the American Civil Liberties Union, called it a “perfect storm” of progressive Democrats who did not think the bill protected basic constitutional rights and of Republicans who took advantage of the lack of unity. “It was too precipitous a process, and it ended up in a train wreck,” she said. “It was total meltdown.”
I love the ACLU and Caroline Frederickson in particular. They do great work. But from the perspective of a progressive and the ACLU, WHICH OPPOSED the House bill (because of the question of bypassing indivudualized warrants for surveillance, adopting instead a “basket” approach), the failure of this bill SHOULD BE great news.
Like Iraq funding, the FISA extension past the February date when the current capitulation bill expires, is a problem for the Bush administration, not the Congress. IF the Congress passes nothing, then the law will revert to the original FISA law that prevailed prior to this summer’s capitulation. There is nothing wrong with that, DESPITE the gnashing of teeth from the Bush administration. IF there were, they would not block THIS BILL.
If the Democrats, PARTICULARLY the Progressive Caucus, sticks to its guns, it will either get a good bill, or no bill at all. OF course the preference is a good bill. But after that, no bill at all is eminently preferable to a BAD bill. Frankly, the House bill was not a good bill imo. Nor was it a good bill in the ACLU’s opinion. Its demise is nothing to lament. So long as Democrats understand the power of doing nothing.
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This is about Iraq funding too.
I am very good at this!
The irony is they have been called obstructionists and ‘do-nothings’ all thes years …..but now, when it counts….
But of course, it will feed the other ‘meme’ the R’s are trying to create regarding this Congress.
Just for kicks, I typed the phrase ‘Do Nothing Democrats’ in the good old Google and there are 4,730,000 links, with the first one being a slam from realclearpolitics.
It’s been said many times, but it’s true. Our political opponents are much better at the game of politics than we are. It’s essentially the only thing they are good at doing.
We’re damned if we do, and damned if we don’t.
We (the Dems) should just stick to the legistating, or lack thereof in this case, and forget about how the R’s will spin it. Regardless of what you do (Al Gore and the fricken’ Nobel Peace Prize anyone?) the R’s will spin a negative out of it.
about reverting back to the previous FISA….
how little Democrats understand of the power of the Congress to do nothing
maybe someone at the WaPo read my pony party the other day about nothing: As such, it is absolutely undefined and unlimited possibility — boundless possibility. There is no compulsion and no law. It is boundless freedom.
Charles S. Peirce, “Logic of Events” (1898)
heh. you just never know what you’ll find in those pony parties… and yes, this is a blatant plug
But we know Ds don’t understand this. And now the Senate is set to pass its horrible version.
Yes, but it failed for the wrong reasons, and so maybe would have been better to pass, because at least there was no immunity for telcos in it. Now we’re likely going to get worse from the Senate and have to work from there.
is the power to NOT do things.
I’m so sick of Congress needing to do something even if it’s the wrong thing to do or it damages in the long term. I don’t grab a sledge hammer and take on my house when I’m bored and don’t have a current home improvement project. I live in it for awhile just the way it is and everything is fine and nobody dies and the end of the world doesn’t even happen. Tired of people not using common sense damn it and tired of those who feed not using common sense. 9/11 didn’t happen because the old FISA laws failed us, 9/11 happened because of intel branch internal and external bickering so get over it wiretappers!
They keep getting the results… that they want to get?
And then after the fact wring their hands and blame it on the GOP or on Bush?
Methinks they protesteth a little too f***ing much.
You know?
you’re getting a lot of attention, Kos @ Kos and Greenwald today. You’re breaking big time!
they are capable of grasping this concept. They apparently think that playing to the cooked up reality of the ‘vast right wing conspiracy’ is still their ticket to power. It has ceased being Kabuki, and gone directly into the theater of the absurd. They are incapable of confronting the myths and boogie men they helped to create and empower. They are stuck by both wanting to look like they are opposing and yet keep operating as a direct funnel to policies of crony capitalism. Doing nothing would actually work and they need to validate the their collusion , politically morally and legally.
“It will include full immunity for those companies that can demonstrate to a court that they acted pursuant to a legal directive in helping the government with surveillance in the United States.”
Well, the whole issue turns on whether the “directive” was legal. So this bill doesn’t really change things at all? Thoughts?