Warning: pure rant.
Progressive Democrats have suffered a body-blow defeat with the party's complicity in the gutting of FISA. This further evisceration of the Bill of Rights would have been bad enough if it happened a year ago in August 2006 when the republicans controlled Congress. We lived through many such defeats. They were awful, but we were a powerless minority, so the notion of "keeping one's powder dry" was plausible. But this time around it is different and the defeat is far more telling. ::
We knew that the republicans would still line up in lockstep behind their 27% champion on this; we probably would have predicted that Leeberman and a few bluedog democrats would cross over too. But this? No talk of filibuster or delay? Feinstein goes? Webb goes? OMG.
Supposedly, the Democrats are in the majority in both houses. But did anyone see where Reid and Pelosi were in all this? Where was the press conference? Where was the PR offensive? Where was the line in the sand? Why were there no legislative alternatives to align with?
Why didn't Reid and Pelosi have a coherent strategy to meet and match this onslaught? Couldn't they come up with a version of this to put forward that maintained some semblance of check and balance? Isn't that their damn job?
And even short of that, don't they control the floor agenda? After all the lies, scandals and shame of this rogue administration couldn't they hold the damn line - especially on the notion of transfering jurisdiction of the personal liberty of communication from the Judiciary to the Attorney General? and especially this atterney jeneral?
Look at the power that might have been brought to bear - the notion of party discipline. Reid and Pelosi influence the flow of campaign dollars, committee assignments, and (supposedly) legislative agenda. They have some considerable parliamentary power. As far as I can tell, none of that clout was utilized.
It was an Olympic class 10 10 10 cave-in. And it's hard to avoid the conclusion that they were cowed and fearful. Reid and Pelosi still operate in the mind-set of a minority party - that's the message here, in all-caps. There it is folks, our party leaders in Congress were cowed and fearful and operate as a minority. Let's take some time to integrate that.
There is no notion of party discipline with the Democrats. It is like one of those coalitions of small parties in Israeli politics. They come and they go. So... as Progressives, here we are, at the fringe of an "all-the-rest-of-us" non-party. But without the prerogatives of minority parties in a parliamentary democracy.
If the Senate Majority leader and the Speaker of the House consider Progressives part of their political base, they owe an explanation as to why they allowed this to go forward. Their silence just shouts that this was a broad daylight capitulation.