A Show of Strength

Glenn Greenwald and Digby have great analyses of the censure issue, and I've done at least three of these as well, but I don't think it's possible to understate its importance. The only way Democrats are going to regain credibility in the eyes of voters is by standing up for their principles instead of cowering, running from a fight, and HOPING the other side implodes.

The Republicans aren't going to quit bashing Dems whether they co-sponsor censure or not. That's the great fallacy here. Democrats think that by laying in the weeds, they'll somehow get points from the Republicans for being responsible or something. This will never happen. Future President Feingold has already been called a terrorist, practically, for bringing this up. That's to be expected. But those that sit out this fight won't get a free pass. What have been the frames from the Right for the last several years? Democrats are weak, they're spineless, they have no agenda. As Greenwald says:

Who appears stronger and more resolute right about now -- Russ Feingold or the Democrats described by the Washington Post and New York Times as literally hiding behind each other to avoid reporters and beating a full "retreat"?

The answer is obvious, and the Republicans will make it. The Democrats need to stop spending so much time worrying what Republicans will think about them and start spending time thinking about what makes sense. The President broke the law and he shouldn't be allowed to get away with it. Whether or not the resolution will pass is 100% irrelevant, whether or not you think 10 voters in a Michigan suburb will react positively to it is also irrelevant. It's about having a spine and having a core set of beliefs.

Digby does a great job of explaining the larger issue with the NSA spying program:

Now we have Republican senators saying explicitly that Russ Feingold is helping the terrorists. You do the math. Everyone is supposed to simply "trust" a president and his rubber stamp bedwetters to not use such sweeping laws against political opponents.

Very recent history shows that we are very wise to be suspicious of such things. It is not only not unimaginable, it was definitely done, within my adult lifetime, by a former GOP president and many of that president's staff and acolytes who are now in the Bush administration. Congressional oversight was what nailed them before and they are determined not to be tripped up by that pesky constitutional requirement again.

Donna Freaking Brazile even gets this. She's on record as embracing the Feingold resolution. This is about a group of people that got nailed by the abuses in Watergate, waited 30 years after the Church Commission implemented safeguards against domestic spying, and decided when the political time was right to completely subvert them. Democrats have to stop being afraid of these bully tactics. Be an opposition party. Oppose. Call breaking the law what it is.

Call your senators.