Make It Stop.

Photo via Gabba Gabba Hey!

Just make it stop. Via Glenn:

The signs are unmistakably clear that what was always inevitable — full compliance by the House Democratic leadership with Bush’s demands on warrantless eavesdropping and telecom amnesty — is now imminent. House leaders spent the week floating their specific proposals for how they intend to comply in full, and yesterday, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Silvestre Reyes went on CNN with Wolf Blitzer, refused to criticize the President or the Senate FISA bill, and repeatedly and meekly expressed his willingness "this week" to give what he called full "blanket immunity" to telecoms (C&L has the video of Reyes’ astoundingly weak and incoherent answers in response to Blitzer’s Bush-mimicking questions)….

But what is somewhat baffling in all of this is just how politically stupid and self-destructive their behavior is. If the plan all along was to give Bush everything he wanted, as it obviously was, why not just do it at the beginning? Instead, they picked a very dramatic fight that received substantial media attention. They exposed their freshmen and other swing-district members to attack ads. They caused their base and their allies to spend substantial energy and resources defending them from these attacks.

When you get right down to it, what does all of this kabuki mean? As always, Digby brings the core of this whole idiocy home in three sentences:

The usurpation of democracy and the constitution doesn’t rate very high on their list of priorities, especially when they see the prospect of a Democratic president who they trust not to follow in Bush’s footsteps.

But this was a principle worth fighting for no matter what. No president, Democrat or Republican, should be trusted with this kind of power.

So, what to do? There’s always a few calls and FAXes, to keep slowing things down in the short term — because a number of our Blue America candidates and other Democrats who are freshman are being pummelled by right-wing nutball ads (and Joe Lieberman) for standing up for the rule of law and they need us to have their backs. McJoan has the phone and FAX numbers.

If for no other reason than any delay is guaranteed to piss off JoeLie and his odious neocon pals…and Dick Cheney. That’s definitely worth something. How about we get to work?

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3. Let’s Stop Max Baucus’s Bipartisan Fetish In Health Reform
4. Silvestre Reyes: CIA Lied to Congress
5. Hey, Harry Reid, Stop Protecting Democrats Who Want to Filibuster the Public Option