On a related note, I've already said the campaign financing issue is a no brainer and doesn't bother me, but I'm a little more concerned about this upcoming inter-party firestorm Obama's looking at:
Obama Backs FISA Compromise
Personally I've always thought the facism level of this bill to be somewhat over-rated, as I imagine this kind of thing is done routinely anyway, but it's a big issue for the far left in the donkey party, as in this:
MoveOn to Obama:Keep your Word, Fillibuster Telecom Immunity
And over at the
MoveOn.org site they are saying this:
Last year, after phone calls from MoveOn members and others, Obama went so far as to vow to "support a filibuster of any bill that includes retroactive immunity for telecommunications companies." We need him to honor that promise.
To me this is the biggest issue crisis Obama's faced post-Hillary, and I'll be very interested to see how he handles it.
The bad thing about it is this is a very muddy issue, yet a prominent enough one to be fairly familiar to the man on the street, and one which despite being intricate, has very clear sides.
To me it's a lose/lose almost anyway you look at it--he caves along with the rest of his party and MoveOn, one of his earliest supporters, realizes they don't own him and start bad-mouthing him (with reason, I think) and the Repubs point out once again he's breaking his word.
On the other, he mounts a high profile protest(since he is not president yet folks, just another vote on the Senate floor on this basically) and again looks "soft" on terrorism and as if he's too "radical" and far left and gives the Republicans that talking point.
As I say, I don't see how he can come out of this smelling of his usual roses and rainbows, and I'll be somewhat disappointed if he completely caves to either side of the debate. On the whole though, I think he needs to lean toward the side of keeping his campaign promise on this one.
