This morning, 105 Democrats voted for the FISA Amendments Act of 2008, including our own Rep. Jim Matheson (D-UT) (R-UT). This legislation is unconstitutional and a total capitulation to White House claims of unlimited executive power. It also stymies future efforts to investigate the full extent of the Bush administration’s illegal surveillance activities.
Members of the House of Representatives take an oath every two years to support and defend the Constitution of the United States– believe it or not.
An article by Mike Lillis in the Washington Independent attempts to understand why the same Democrats who stood up to the Bush administration’s illegal domestic surveillance programs in February are backing down now.
Why did the majority party cave in to the worst and least popular President in the nation’s history?:
Julian E. Zelizer, a congressional historian at Princeton University, had a guess. He said the Democrats, who are largely expected to pick up congressional seats in November’s elections, don’t want to risk their current advantage over an issue that could brand them as “soft-on-terror.”
“It seems that’s the calculation they’re making,” he said. “We’ve seen this before. On defense and national security issues, the Democrats have a history of just giving in.”
[Caroline] Fredrickson, of the ACLU, also suggested that Democrats are running scared from the 30-second campaign ad. “They’ve just bought this argument that they’re weak on defense hook, line and sinker,” she said, “and it’s caused them to act like Republicans.”
Now the “battle,” if there is one, moves to the Senate next week. Senator Christopher Dodd stopped this nonsense last December with a filibuster threat. At the time Senators Clinton, Biden and Obama all supported him. Now, Barack Obama’s spokesman says he doesn’t know how his boss will vote.
Will the Democrats give in again, or can they change history?
UPDATE: Senator Obama couldn’t even let us dream for one news cycle. No, he has already caved. Yuck. He’s against retroactive immunity but for widespread domestic surveillance. Did I mention this guy wants to be our next President?
UPDATE: Amanda Simon was masochistic enough to watch today’s floor debate: FISA Debate: Not So Much a Debate as a Death March for the Fourth Amendment.
UPDATE: Glenn Greenwald has more horrifying details. He also notes the latest poll showing that the Democratic Congress is more popular with Republicans than among Democrats.
UPDATE: Hunter on DailyKos parses Obama’s “milquetoast, self-congratulatory justification for choosing the easy way out.”
It is complete acceptance of an illegal program, dressed up as hard-fought victory, and by God the Democrats responsible for it and voting for it, Obama included, naturally presume that if they type up some lovely-sounding bullcrap about it, they’ll be able to pretend it is something other than strategically planned and executed cowardice in the face of lawbreaking.
Previous One Utah posts:
House Democrats Demand Accountability For Illegal Wiretaps (March 17, 2008)
Total Information Awareness Never Went Away (March 10, 2008)
Bush Cries Wolf and Congress Doesn’t Panic (February 15, 2008)
Dems Threaten to RESTORE Warrantless Surveillance (October 9, 2007)
Congress Has Suspended the 4th Amendment (August 5, 2007)
#1 by Larry Bergan - June 20th, 2008 at 13:29
Boy, do I feel silly!
How many times do the enough of the Democrats have to fold before I realize we’re in even deeper trouble then I thought.
This isn’t the first time Matheson has made a fool out of me. A few years ago, I was at a Democracy For Utah meeting and there was a girl there representing Matheson’s office. Around that time, there was legislation that was being called the Patriot Act II which would have worsened the first one in relation to our civil liberties. I had heard something that made me suspect Matheson was supporting that bill so I asked the girl why he was supporting it. She said she didn’t know. I took that to mean he was and started to tell people he was.
A little while later, somebody who was at meeting Matheson attended told me he was going to vote against the new Patriot Act bill and I felt guilty so I sent a letter to Matheson’s office apologizing, saying I have been telling people he was against our civil liberties. It was true, Matheson was going to vote against the Patriot Act II.
I had a chance to go to a meeting in Sandy where Matheson would be present and I brought a tough question with me, but when my turn came to speak, I first thanked him for voting against the Patriot Act bill. The audience erupted with applause and Matheson made a joke about the meeting being over and thanked everybody.
Then I found out the bad news. A NEW bill had been introduced which retained all of the bad provisions in the previous bill, and Matheson would be voting FOR that one.
For somebody who prides himself on being bipartisan to represent all Utahn’s, I think this is outrageous. There are a couple of issues I strongly believe both parties oppose. One of them is media consolidation and the other is secret surveillance. I don’t know who Matheson thinks he is representing here, but it’s not the people.
Thanks for another great post, Richard! I couldn’t find anything anywhere else this early in the day and was pleasantly surprised.
By the way, most of the Democrats in the house voted against this bill and ALL of the Republicans, (except one), voted FOR it. If that’s all I have to cling to, I guess it will have to suffice, but I’m having a crappy day.
#2 by Richard Warnick - June 20th, 2008 at 13:41
Larry is handing out undeserved praise. The Utah Bloghive is buzzing about this, and several bloggers weighed in before I did. Not to mention the national political blogs.
#3 by cav - June 20th, 2008 at 17:31
Another clear case of BDS, ‘Bush Derangement Syndrome’. Long ago, when it became clear that somehow the Bush administration an those duped by it would find no level low enough in compromising the principles of this once great nation, there were stalwarts who thought that reality would see this ’shit-fan’ eventually grind to a halt, choked with the goofy crap these cowards seemed ever so ready to feed into it. Well it’s almost as if the public finds it very entertaining to see just what new outrage they’ll be forced to tolerate. What would you expect from a society that even entertains, the likes of Rush Limpbaugh?
But…It has gotten old. Very, very old. And of course, there’s more to come, be assured.
#4 by Anonymous - June 20th, 2008 at 21:26
and there you have it…the dems don’t act like republicans, they are them as well.
#5 by Cliff Lyon - June 21st, 2008 at 07:12
I rarely weigh in on this issue because it disgusts me beyond words. At this point, I will never EVER forgive ANY politician who votes for immunity let alone domestic surveillance.
What surprises me, is the libertarian hypocrites who support telecom immunity.
This is fascism in its purist form.
#6 by cav - June 21st, 2008 at 07:19
Give Big Brother (or Matheson for that matter), a spit-curl, and I’d consider going ghei.
#7 by Ken Bingham - June 21st, 2008 at 07:29
#8 by Cliff Lyon - June 21st, 2008 at 08:09
Thanks Ken. Looks like a kid I knew in school who flunked 9th grade three times.
#9 by Cliff Lyon - June 21st, 2008 at 08:36
Read full post
#10 by Richard Warnick - June 21st, 2008 at 09:05
All it takes is one senator who believes in the Constitution. One out of 100 to stop this.
#11 by Albert O. - June 21st, 2008 at 10:08
Ken:
It is becoming easier all the time to recognize when your back is against the wall in debate re the Chimp and his failure of an administration – you always resort to postings without substance like the one above.
Why don’t you just admit to being hosed by the Chimp?
And while you are at it, why don’t you admit now that you will do everything in your power to prevent your children from fighting in Iraq when they become of age.
Come on, man, be honest for once on this blog; be honest for once with yourself!
#12 by Larry Bergan - June 21st, 2008 at 13:49
So Pelosi, Rockefeller and the rest preferred being shamed throughout history to owning up to their mistakes. I hope all of those grandchildren Pelosi paraded around in front of us at her inauguration will be proud of her and the legacy she leaves them. I’ll work to my death to make sure not one of them ever achieves any office, perpetuating the obscene nepotism that has ruined this country.
I’ll say it again. I’m so damned tired of being safe, I could puke!
#13 by Leo Brown - June 22nd, 2008 at 08:13
One wonders what politics would be like if the opposition party was not the Democratic Party but a much larger Libertarian Party.
See this link, for example.