Democrats Cave on Telecom Immunity

"political cowardice, pure and simple."


http://washingtonindependent.com/view/democrats-cave-on

In February, as the law authorizing the Bush administration's controversial warrantless wiretapping program was set to lapse, House Democrats brushed aside GOP threats and let the clock run out. Politically, the move was a gamble: White House officials had claimed the law -- including retroactive legal immunity for the phone companies that participated -- was necessary to protect the country from terrorist attacks. The administration pushed its message relentlessly.

To the delight of privacy and civil-liberties groups, however, the Democrats stood their ground.

"We must not fall prey to fear-mongers who claim that our intelligence community could 'go dark,'" House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said on the chamber floor at the time. "That is simply not true."

Four months later, a very different scenario is playing out on Capitol Hill, where congressional leaders on Thursday unveiled a new agreement to expand the administration's domestic wiretapping capabilities under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA. The bill would effectively lead to the dismissal of the roughly 40 civil suits currently pending against the telecom companies for allegedly violating the civil liberties of their customers.

snip

Bruce Ackerman, professor of law and political science at Yale University, characterized the Democrats' support for the proposal as "political cowardice, pure and simple."

"The fact is that the Democratic leadership in Congress has done absolutely nothing to make good on its electoral mandate of 2006," Ackerman wrote in an email. "It was elected to rein in the abuses of presidential power at home and abroad. And it is caving in -- despite the massive unpopularity of the president's policies."

NT

DEMOCRATS COLLUDING WITH BUSH TO GUT 4th AMENDMENT TO COVER THEIR OWN CULPABILITY

http://www.hotpotatomash.com/2008/06/democrats-collu.html

Im more and more convinced the Democrats, as a party, have not been caving in at all. They are playing their hand and a role, whearas they will be the majority party (thus pacifying the masses of angry citizens), but in the end everyone got what they wanted (including the pacified American people). I am starting to see this as a big farce. It appears to be an orchestrated show to balance to powerful taking what they want against the rage of the people. So far, its working great, because every 8 years (despite nothing progressive being done), the people are happy again.