I must admit to feeling betrayed. I have not found many Republicans to support in recent years, but have felt that Richard Lugar would always place his contituents' interests as supreme. Similarly, Evan Bayh is too conservative for my taste, but again, I felt he displayed a reliable focus on fundamental issues.
Imagine my surprise and dismay when both of them went on record to insulate the Bush Administration and the Tel-com industry from any responsibility or consequences arising out of what were likely illegal wire-tapping activities. Lawsuits are the only means we'll ever have to find out what was done -- and arguably our only protection against what could be done in the future. They are smart men, so it is inconceivable that they bought the disengenuous, self -contradictory nonsense the White House has been spewing on the matter. It must be that they are that beholden to AT&T and their brethren.
The Senators to our north (in Michigan) did much better. Both voted no.
Poor Senator Chris Dodd (D-Conn) had vowed to filibuster this awful bill, but his leader Harry Reid cut his legs out from under him.
Constitutional scholar Jonathan Turley discusses the whole sorry mess with Keith Olbermann below.
Oh... and a bit more on the topic.
Friday, February 15, 2008
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4 comments:
i wouldn't read too much into the senator's votes...my take on this is that the senate voted with the understanding that the bill would be dead upon arrival in the house.
lots of "tough on terrorist" cover, with no real impact...a typical "lock down the middle" campaign day at the office, not a governing one.
That would be fine if the measure had something to do with being tough on terrorism or terriers or sumpin. What it has to do with is cya for outfits and administrations who's a's should be kicked, not covered.
Our Senators haven't been known for this kind of behavior and I will complain when they engage in it.
As you Washingtonians are wont to say: That dog won't hunt.
the cya aspect of this is exactly what the vote was all about...i'm just suggesting bayh and lugar are among the ones doing the covering, as they eye their chances in a red state where they always have to fundraise, and where they're usually in campaign mode.
at the same time, they know this is not going to become law, so they have "plausable deniability" on the "soft on terrorists" question, and their a's are covered, too.
for the observant, this is somewhere between irritating and disgusting, but for the unobservant these distinctions often get lost in the blare of tv and talk radio...and i assume the unobservant are the audience being played to here.
Yeah,but both these guys are safer than a bible in a revival meeting. they are each Senators for life in this state.
And Lugar, in particular, has been courageous in the past - staring down GW and Jesse Helms - always willing to pay the small or medium price. I think he got 72 percent of the vote (it may have been more)last time out, so I doubt if he worries much about political intrigue.
As far as fund raising, they give most of their contributions away, and what they get now is probably for two election cycles from now.
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