Disenfranchised

How long is it worth it to support a Democratic party that has a majority in both houses of Congress and yet insists on rolling over for the minority and their extremely unpopular leader. We've had another cave to add to our list of ignominy. And no, I'm not talking about Harry Reid and his performance yesterday in dealing with the FISA and telecoms bill. It's tradition in the Senate to honor the holds of its members, by which a senator can essentially take a piece of legislation and make it off limits from consideration by the larger body. Republican Lindsay Graham of South Carolina currently has a hold on a bill that would limit CIA torture. Do a Google search for "Tom Coburn" and hold for an idea of how much Republican Corbin from Oklahoma uses this perogative to stop legislation he doesn't like. He even has a page on his Senate Website explaining how holds work. But when Chris Dodd, Democratic stalwart puts a hold on immunity for telecoms, all of a sudden holds are advisory, subject to the whims of the majority leader. (By the way, Reid is claiming that Dodd's actions had nothing whatsoever to do with his own decision to pull the bill until next year. I'm sure it was his plan all along to push the bill hard and than give up on it. Actually, given the way he's been running the Senate lately, maybe it was.)

No, although it might've been on point, this post wasn't inspired by any of that. Instead, it was brought to mind by the Democratic Senate's complete surrender of the elaborate plan they'd made to keep from giving the Prez an unconditional funding bill for the Iraq war. After about a month of sticking to their guns to force Bush to accept some sort of troop pullout for the money, last night they said, "Sure, no problem." As part of a massive spending bill, the Senate gave the Prez exactly what he insisted he needed: unfettered money.

Oh, well. It was fun while it lasted. But for Majority Leader next time, do you think we can find a candidate who won't make empty promises while lining up to fulfill all the president's requests? Maybe not, but let's try, OK?