I'm angry about FISA. But I'm angry at the right people, and not for primary reasons.

Political Heretic

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Fri Jul-11-08 11:57 PM
Original message

I'm angry about FISA. But I'm angry at the right people, and not for primary reasons.

Edited on Fri Jul-11-08 11:59 PM by Political Heretic

Forgive me if I'm a bit cynical about much of the Obama trashing here. When the biggest proponents of Obama trashing are coming from the exact same people who were trashing him during the primary, its hard to believe in its sincerity.

Especially when, if one were serious in one's anger about FISA, one would be angry at different people.

I'm angry about FISA. I agree with the ACLU in its assessment that it is a bad bill. But I'm angry at congressional democratic leaders, particularly house speaker Nancy Pelosi, who chose to bring this to the floor when she did not have to. I'm angry over her obvious reason for doing so, because she cowardly believed that Republicans in close-race downticket districts would try to use Congress' choice not to deliver a new FISA bill against democrats running in close races, and that it was therefore necessary to pass a FISA bill which would thus take that criticism off the table.

That was a huge, cowardly mistake. The lack of a FISA bill was not an issue until the House made it one by bringing it up again. It would have been far easier for any Democratic candidate to defend against the House not bringing a FISA bill to a vote that it would be to defend against not voting for a "national-security" bill (how it would have been framed) once presented. It was an example of the same cowardly attitude that has driven Nancy Pelosi since 2006, and we have every right to be upset about it.

However, that is where the mistake was made. Once that mistake was made, a chain of events was set into motion where there were limited good options. Obama could have cast a no vote, but that vote - no one can deny - would have been a purely symbolic gesture. There were a clear majority of senators who declared that they would vote for the bill long before it came to the actual vote. Everyone knew it had the votes to pass with or without Obama's no vote. Sincere defenders of the 4th amendment would correctly direct their anger at those congressional leaders who allowed this bill to come to the floor at all. Once it did, the damage was already done with a majority of senators already pledging to vote for it.

It is ridiculous to ask Obama to throw the presidential election to cast a purely symbolic vote. It's insane to expect (or want) him to gift-wrap and hand the GOP everything it has been desperately hoping for with which to attack Obama from now until November. There's a distinct possibility it would have cost him the Presidency. And even if it turned out it would not, its simply not worth the risk.

That doesn't mean we shouldn't be angry about FISA. But sincere people direct that anger where it belongs - not on the failure of a candidate for president to cast a symbolic no vote that would potentially cost him the election, but with the continued failure of Democratic Congressional leadership and their cowardly assumption that the had to do this in order to win. The only reason not to direct anger where it belongs is if your motives for trashing Obama were never sincere in the first place!

That's what I call disruption.