A comment exchange over at the Great Sherbert Satan I found interesting:
[At any rate, it’s the Blue Dogs, not Pelosi] who should be blamed, and maybe not even Hoyer, from what I can see. What’s the matter with those guys – how could they possibly want to let this slip by without action against the violators? This is like a big fat completely undeserved gift for Bush and Cheney. Did you notice that even the Republicans were surprised they were able to get so much in the negotiations? Disgusting.
The blame for this absolute travesty and capitulation of the lowest order rests squarely on Nancy Pelosi, Steny Hoyer, and Harry Reid’s shoulders. The blue dogs don’t get to determine what bills are brought to the floor to be voted on. That’s the House Leadership’s job. This is all their (Hoyer in particular) fault and every last one of them or any other Dem. who votes for this fascist bullshit should be ridden out on a rail, tarred and feathered and then prosecuted to the full extent of the law for violating the Constitution and lying to the American people.
Follow the ladder upward. Pelosi and Hoyer are supposedly grown-ups, displaying an astonishing level of self-absorbed crap for which a 12-year-old would be grounded for a week. I just heard Hoyer say on the floor that “this was the best bill we could get in the current environment.” What environment would that be? The one in which the president who pushes this bill has a 24 percent approval rating? The one in which Republicans can’t hang on to seats in Mississippi? The one in which the Republican nominee can’t find his ass with a searchlight and a posse? That environment? Is that the one you’re talking about? The environment of stunning electoral pwnage marred only by the lack of realization on your part that you’refucking in charge right now?
Wait. No. Silly blogger. You mean the environment in which your “Blue Dogs” are able to tell you, Mr. Majority Leader, Madam Speaker, what to do. You mean the environment in which a couple dozen members of your party are able to do whatever the fuck they like because you, and Speaker Pelosi, and Sen. Reid, lack the ability to tell them to shut the fuck up and sit the fuck down on issues of fundamental importance to Constitutional authority in this country. That’s the “current environment.” That’s where you’re at, scared of your own shadows. Unable to get your own people to follow you.
Nice job, really, nice job. What did you want to be when you grew up? And why, for the love of heaven, aren’t youthat?
At this point, Barack Obama is the nominal leader of the Democratic Party. He’s opposed to retroactive immunity for the telecoms, and everyone who was opposed to it before this so-called “deal” was struck is, you’ll notice, still opposed to it, though some have opted to throw up their hands and pretend they’re being forced to vote on it.
But a word from Barack Obama at this point would have the potential to change everything. A word from him saying that this “deal” stands in direct contradiction to the agenda he’s bringing to the presidential race would weigh heavily on Majority Leader Harry Reid, who’s really only getting heavy pressure from Intelligence committee chairman Jay Rockefeller on this, and thus is likely to be inclined (despite his own opposition to immunity) to grease that particular squeaky wheel. There could be a counterbalance from Judiciary chairman Pat Leahy, but so far, we haven’t heard that squeak. He’s issued a statement saying he opposes the “deal,” but he’s not pushing the way Rockefeller is pushing. And though Reid is the Majority Leader, that’s as much a service position as it is a leadership position. His membership just isn’t telling him no. The voices that are speaking with conviction are the voices saying yes.
Barack Obama, though, is the heavyweight in the arena right now, and his voice, properly applied, could be worth a dozen chairmen. But he’s not using it, and in fact, there’s no guarantee he ever will.
But get us into next week, pitch a fight in the Senate, back the Congress up against the recess wall, and call in the biggest gun we have, and we just might have that snowflake’s chance in the hot place.
Yes, I know he’s spoken against telecom immunity before, and it was appreciated muchly. This is professional short-attention-span theater. He needs to do it again, and he needs to do it now, and he needs to pick up the chair and he needs tohit ’em again, harder, harder. Five months until the election. Crunch time. Chair’s right in front of you.
A.