What backroom conniving are Steny Hoyer and the Chris Carney Blue Dogs up to on FISA?
Are House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and a small handful of "Blue Dog" Democrats working in secret to reverse one of the only worthwhile acts of Congressional Democrats since they were given control of Congress in 2006: namely, the refusal to vest the President with vast new warrantless eavesdropping powers and bequeath lawbreaking telecoms with amnesty? It certainly appears that way.
Numerous reports -- both public and otherwise -- suggest that Hoyer is negotiating with Jay Rockefeller to write a new FISA bill that would be agreeable to the White House and the Senate. Their strategy is to craft a bill that they can pretend is something short of amnesty for telecoms but which, in every meaningful respect, ensures an end to the telecom lawsuits. It goes without saying that no "compromise" will be acceptable to Rockefeller or the White House unless there is a guaranteed end to those lawsuits, i.e., unless the bill grants amnesty to lawbreaking telecoms.
Even Capitol Hill insiders are baffled at the impetus for this new drive to capitulate. For the first times in years, the House Democratic caucus unified to take an actual stand on an issue relating to Terrorism -- all but five Blue Dogs voted for the House bill and rejected the Rockefeller/Cheney Senate bill. Even the GOP accepted that their fear-mongering campaign around the issue had failed, as there was no public outcry demanding that the President be allowed to spy on Americans without warrants or that telecoms be allowed to break the law with impunity. Key Blue Dogs have been making impressive public statements insisting that they will not reverse their position.
Hoyer's motives, then, appear to be two-pronged: (1) he and the House Democratic leadership simply want to grant amnesty to telecoms -- they favor it -- because they do not want the lawsuits relating to illegal spying to proceed to resolution; and (2) they are deferring to the tiny number of Blue Dogs who favor amnesty and warrantless eavesdropping. This article from The Hill this week specifically identifies freshman Rep. Chris Carney as demanding that the House comply with the President's demands:
Vulnerable freshman Democrats and Blue Dogs say the issue demands action.
"Overall, it's very important," said Rep. Chris Carney (D-Pa.), a freshman member of the Blue Dog Coalition who often votes against his leadership.
Carney said that a compromise should protect national security and also respect civil liberties. "I've been in favor of the Senate bill. We'll see what happens," he said.
In early March, a new campaign was announced to begin running ads in the districts of vulnerable Democratic Congressmen like Carney whose presence in Washington is worse than worthless: it's extremely counter-productive since they essentially eliminate the entire concept of "opposition party" by continuously pressuring Democrats to enable the most radical aspects of Republican rule for their own perceived narrow political gain.
Within 24 hours, close to $50,000 was raised for that ad campaign. And the poll accompanying the fundraising campaign -- which asked which of five proposed Blue Dogs should be the first target -- resulted in a clear win (or, more accurately, a clear loss) for Chris Carney. The ad campaign aimed at Carney is in the process of being completed (and a professional ad coordinator to oversee and finalize that process is now needed -- email me if you are one or can recommend one and I'll pass it along).
For obvious reasons, this ad campaign is now more imperative than ever. The more funds that are available to fuel the ad campaign, the more potent the impact will be -- both for Carney and in terms of the message being sent generally. Those who want to donate to the ad campaign can and are encouraged to do so here.
I wrote about the reasons why it is so crucial to target Democrats who behave like Carney does back in March when the campaign was launched. These latest developments vividly highlight those reasons. Scare-mongering ads from right-wing groups have been running in numerous districts of the freshman Democrats who have stood firm against the demands of the telecoms and the President. But there have been no ads running in the districts of those members who want to vote for warrantless eavesdropping and telecom amnesty. As a result, House Democrats like Hoyer and Carney perceive that there is a cost only when they defy the President, but perceive that there is no price to be paid from capitulating. More than anything, that is what has to change.
