Congress

Dodd: Why Didn’t They Fight Back?

Someday we’ll be asked:

I’ll ask this, Mr. President: Who will chair the commission investigating the secrets of warrantless spying, years from today? Will it be a young senator in this body today? Will it be someone not yet elected? What will that senator say when he or she comes to our actions, reads in the records how we let outrage after outrage after outrage slide, with nothing more than a promise to stop the next one? I imagine that senator will ask of us, “Why didn’t they do anything? Why didn’t they fight back? In February 2008, when no one could doubt anymore what the administration was doing—why did they sit on their hands?”

Someday you, Sen. Bayh, and you, Sen. Webb, and you, Sen. Lincoln, and you, Sen. Kohl, and all the others, will be asked.

I guess we know now how you’ll answer.

A.

5 thoughts on “Dodd: Why Didn’t They Fight Back?”

  1. Thank Dodd. Too bad there aren’t more willing to defend, or talk about, or read the constitution. Sad day for democracy.

  2. I woke up this morning in a neutral mode. Now I’m depressed.
    One of the big problems I see when you have these massive giveaways to the telcos is who is fighting against them. We needed to not only try and convince senators that this is a big deal but to beat out the highly paid lobbyists. How to do that? Who pays for us to do that? Is there any “anti-telco” group who could help us that is NOT a corporation?
    Money is speech to senators and if you have more money you have more speech. And they have been listening to the most “speech” aka (the most money)
    Jane at FDL said she was always impressed by how cheap the senators are bought, pennies on the dollar. This thing will save the telecos hundreds of millions of dollars and they probably only dumped a few million in the pot to get it.
    Sigh.

  3. Cloture has been voted on, and passed.
    So does that mean no ‘stupid and futile gesture’ (to steal a line from “Animal House”) on Chris Dodd’s part, or is there some “little known codicil” (to do it again) to the Senate rules to yet allow it?

  4. RE, listening to Dodd right now and it doesn’t seem possible. If they have 61 votes for cloture, they have enough votes to cut him off.
    A.

  5. Dodd just said he’ll be back up if the conference doesn’t strip retroactive immunity since the House bill doesn’t include it. Looks like the final final showdown will happen then.
    A.

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