How apropos is this?? Salon: Fear of spying

[whometense]

Wow - great timing.

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2006/01/20/spying/

Democratic strategists say opposing Bush on NSA spying makes the party look weak. Of course, that's what they said about Iraq.

By Walter Shapiro

Jan. 20, 2006 | WASHINGTON -- What does Dick Cheney have in common with Democratic campaign consultants?

This is not a trick question built around hairline, health or hard-nosed philosophy of government. Instead, what unite the vice president and the opposition-party operatives are their fears of the fallout from the National Security Agency eavesdropping scandal. Cheney, of course, is not talking, so his views have to be inferred at a distance. But the Democratic consultants are outspoken about their political concerns over the warrantless wiretapping furor, as long as their identities are protected by don't-use-my-name-in-print anonymity.

Typical was my lunch discussion earlier this week with a ranking Democratic Party official. Midway through the meal, I innocently asked how the "Big Brother is listening" issue would play in November. Judging from his pained reaction, I might as well have announced that Barack Obama was resigning from the Senate to sell vacuum cleaners door-to-door. With exasperation dripping from his voice, my companion said, "The whole thing plays to the Republican caricature of Democrats -- that we're weak on defense and weak on security." To underscore his concerns about shrill attacks on Bush, the Democratic operative forwarded to me later that afternoon an e-mail petition from MoveOn.org, which had been inspired by Al Gore's fire-breathing Martin Luther King Day speech excoriating the president's contempt for legal procedures...

...But Time magazine columnist Joe Klein ("Primary Colors") will argue in a new book coming out this spring, "Paradise Lost," that misjudgments by Democratic consultants have played a major role in leaving the party without a power base more influential than the state of Illinois. And from my own vantage point, the Democrats' positioning on the eavesdropping issue invites comparisons to their fetal crouch in the run-up to the Iraqi War. A majority of Senate Democrats voted for Bush's go-to-war resolution -- including John Kerry, John Edwards and Hillary Clinton -- at least partly because the pollsters insisted that it was the only politically safe position, a ludicrous and self-destructive notion in hindsight.

The problem with a consultant-driven overreliance on polling data is that it is predicated on the assumption that nothing will happen to jar public opinion out of its current grooves. As Elaine Kamarck, a top advisor in the Clinton-Gore White House and a professor at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, argued, "These guys just don't get it. They don't understand that in politics strength is better than weakness. And a political party that is always the namby-pamby 'me too' party is a party that isn't going to get anyplace."

Kamarck also shrewdly pointed out that if leading Democrats follow the consultants and abdicate the field on the NSA spying issue (Hillary Clinton, please call your office), "They're going to leave the critique open to the far left. And that will exacerbate two problems the Democrats have: one, that they look too far out of the mainstream, and the other, that they don't believe in anything."...

BTW, I thonk Walter Shapiro is a straight shooter. He wrote One Car Caravan which had some lovely Kerry moments. He isn't always pro-Kerry, but he doesn't take cheap shots, either.

[TayTay]

1. I like Walter Shapiro as well. He is a straight-shooter.

I would remind anyone here that 'rolling over' for Bush is not JK's problem. He authored that Amendment to the Intelligence Re-Authorization bill that asks the Pentagon to supply a report on the 'secret torture prisons' in Europe and the methods being used to torture suspected insurgents. This amendment, as well as two authored by Mass Dem Teddy Kennedy are causing the House extremist Rethugs to refuse to let the bill go forward. JK has not backed down on his amendment and neither has Teddy K. Not all Dems are on-board this 'all fear, all the time' wagon.

This is part of the problem with the national party. We have the consultants who are only reading what they want to read. I don't understand how they can look out and see that Bush has overwhelming support for assuming dictatorial powers when the people of the US are not backing his war. Bush's approval ratings, after three months of speeches and appearances designed to boost war has only gone up about 4% to a terrible 42-43%. (This is a horrible number, just horrible.) There are conservatives who are appalled at the idea that the Chief Executive has supreme power to do away with the 4th Amendment to the Constitution and are mobilizing against Bush.

This is no time to wimp out and cower under the desk. This is a time to come out and strongly assert that we believe in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. These consultants are going to ruin this party.

[ProSense]

2. You're right!

Bush has the same problem trying to sell his "I shall rule" position as he had with his social security scheme. Except this is far more important because this is an attempt to strip us of our basic rights. He'll have free reign after that. Anyone who calls him/herself a Democrat who is confusing the issue by harping on fear should be called out for not only missing the big picture, but for buying into Bush's grand scheme. In fact, after yesterday, I expect these same people to turn their attention to Bush for OBL.