NY Times Editorial Blisters Congressional Dems For FISA Cave-In

[rodeodance]

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/horsesmouth/


NY Times Editorial Blisters Congressional Dems For FISA Cave-In


October 20, 2007 -- 2:02 PM EST // link //
The other day I noted that the New York Times editorial page doesn't get the Web credit it deserves for being a voice of sanity at key moments when much of the opinion-making elite is either opting for the comfort of self-delusion or is simply AWOL.

Well, today's Times brings an important new editorial that tidily makes this point. It absolutely blisters the Senate intelligence committee for its FISA cave-in. More important, it supplies the necessary larger context for understanding what's happening -- specifically, that all too many Dem Congressional leaders are still nursing hangovers from their minority days and are acting as if the 2006 decision by voters to put them in control of Congress just never happened:

With Democrats Like These...

Every now and then, we are tempted to double-check that the Democrats actually won control of Congress last year. It was particularly hard to tell this week. Democratic leaders were cowed, once again, by propaganda from the White House and failed, once again, to modernize the law on electronic spying in a way that permits robust intelligence gathering on terrorists without undermining the Constitution.

We were left wondering who is really in charge, when in a bipartisan press release announcing the agreement, the ranking Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, Kit Bond, described the bill as “a delicate arrangement of compromises” that could not be changed in any way. The committee’s chairman, Jay Rockefeller, didn’t object.

[EV_Ares]

1. It really is difficult to understand. I just wish the dems would take the

stand they know or feel is right and stick with it and stand up to Bush & the republicans. You can handle losing a battle but at least attempt to fight them on it and I think they would gain a lot more respect. It is up to the people if they want change to vote the republicans out so the dems can get a better majority to make the necessary changes.

[robinlynne]

2. delictae... the changes were written by the Bush team. There is no part of the compromise

which is good for the country, the people or the democrats. This is a nightmare bill. As bad as any congress has signed in the past 7 years.

[BrklynLib at work]

3. That is why the approval rating for Congress sucks. The Dems are NOT doing what they were elected to

do.