Chicken-Shit Senate Democrats

Today the Senate passed a surveillance bill that would grant immunity to telecommunications companies for complying with orders from government agencies to hand over their customers' private information. Clearly these companies followed orders from the executive branch of our government. But whether those orders were lawful, and whether the telecommunications companies or the federal government itself should be held accountable, are questions that have not yet been decided in court. This new legislation would sidestep that judicial process by shifting the burden of liability from the companies to -- wait for it -- no one. It's an after-the-fact CYA bill for everyone.

Democrats run the Senate. Nominally. Since they took power they have proven themselves completely impotent and unwilling to stand up to a reckless president. They'll even claim impotence as an excuse; since they are incapable of amassing the necessary 60 votes to get anything passed, we shouldn't blame them.

This is a smokescreen. What they're refusing to admit, and what the media for some reason keeps giving them a free ride on, is that they have the supreme power not to pass laws. They can choose not to appropriate money for things like the expansion of a war. But it goes beyond money. In today's intelligence legislation, they included the immunity provision even though most Senate Democrats thought it was abominable and ultimately tried to filibuster the bill because of it. So why did the Senate Democratic leadership include it? Because President Bush said he'd veto the bill if they did not include this special measure. Got that? He would veto a bill for no other reason than that it didn't do something extra (and perhaps unconstitutional) that he also wanted done. And the chicken-shit Democrats, rather than stand up to this bullshit, chose not to escalate the tension with the president over something that rhetorically can be connected to national security. It's an election year. We must look tough. We must support the troops. We must be re-elected so we can do better things next time. And so it continues...

When Republicans controlled the Congress, they took their power as a mandate to pass measures that were reactionary, hateful, unconstitutional, irresponsible, and opportunistic. This Democratic Congress, in contrast, has done nothing meaningful whatsoever for its base. They're so afraid of losing their majority that they're afraid to use it. And to highlight their timidity, they pass this very questionable measure, rather than do anything else they could be doing, because President Bust said to. The Democrats are too scared to do what the country needs; the Republicans, in the minority, led by a president with a 30% approval rating, get what they want.

Check how your Senators voted. As for mine, Jon Tester voted against the bill, Max Baucus (scared to death of losing a re-election campaign) voted for it. Obama voted nay, Clinton abstained.