Let there be no doubt: a majority of senators, and a large number of Democrats, think the telecoms should not suffer the hazard of accountability for cooperating with the administration's warrantless wiretapping program. Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT) took to the floor last night to give a speech asking, "This is our defining question, the question that confronts every generation: The rule of law, or the rule of men?" The resounding answer: the rule of men.
The Senate voted on the Dodd/Feingold amendment, which would have stripped retroactive immunity from the surveillance bill just now. The final tally was 31-67; crossing over to vote nay were Sens. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), Evan Bayh (D-IA), Daniel Inouye (D-HI), Tim Johnson (D-SD), Herb Kohl (D-WI), Mary Landrieu (D-LA), Claire McCaskill (D-MO), Mark Pryor (D-AR), Blanche Lincoln (D-AR), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Ken Salazar (D-CO), Tom Carper (D-DE), Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), Jim Webb (D-VA), Ben Nelson (D-NE), Bill Nelson (D-FL), Kent Conrad (D-ND), and Debbie Stabenow (D-MI). Update: Here's the official tally.
Presidential candidates Sens. John McCain (R-AZ) and Barack Obama (D-IL) were present for the vote – voting nay and yea, respectively.
One reader noted:
Didn't we elect Democrats into office to stop this sort of thing from happening?
I'd say the reader was correct. However, that for which we voted and what we actually find as our representation are two distinctly different things. Indeed, we can lay the current debacle that is the confirmation of our new do-nothing, pro-torture Attorney General squarely at the feet of Democratic Senators Dianne Feinstein (CA) and Charles Schumer (NY).
The Democrats are not the answer. The Republicans are even worse than the Democrats. The question then is this: will the country wake up and find a solution while there is still time to save the Republic? I have my doubts.
12 February 2008
No comments:
Post a Comment