What good are Democrats?

Chris Dodd is my new hero. He appears to be Dan Froomkin’s hero, as well, along with Glenn Greenwald of Salon — who called it “one of the most compelling and inspired speeches by a prominent politician that I’ve heard in quite some time.”
The reason is that Dodd has been hammering home the dangers of the Bush approach to surveillance and Congressional Democrats’ willingness to compromise to avoid appearing weak. Dodd’s assault — I think that is fair — on this cynical approach is a reminder in many ways that we will need to apply significant pressure to the Democratic nominee (the Republican nominee is a lost cause on this) if we are to keep him from tacking right.
Sen. Barack Obama, the Democratic standard-bearer, has announced that he plans to support the FISA deal — an about-face from his early promise to fillibuster any legislation that included immunity from lawsuits for telecom companies that may have been involved in domestic spying. His reasoning: The bill

“firmly re-establishes basic judicial oversight over all domestic surveillance in the future”

and

“guarantees a thorough review by the Inspectors General of our national security agencies to determine what took place in the past, and ensures that there will be accountability going forward.”

“It is a close call for me,” Obama told reporters. But he said the addition of the “exclusivity” provision giving power to the secret court, along with a new inspector general role and other oversight additions, “met my basic concerns.” He said the bill’s target should not be the phone companies’ culpability, but “can we get to the bottom of what’s taking place, and do we have safeguards?”

That’s just not enough, as Sen. Russ Feingold, the Wisconsin Democrat, makes clear in comments about his Democratic House colleagues:

“That’s a farce and it’s political cover,” Feingold said. “Anybody who claims this is an okay bill, I really question if they’ve even read it. ”

“Democrats enabled [this],” Feingold went on. “Some of the rank-and-file Democrats in the Senate who were elected on this reform platform unfortunately voted with Kit Bond, who’s just giggling, he’s so happy with what he got. We caved in.”

It is up us to to force their hand.
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Quote of the day: Fear card edition

Charles Black, Republican John McCain’s chief campaign strategist, offered a glimpse into the mind of the GOP’s mind earlier this week when he let slip, during a Fortune magazine profile of his boss, that “one good scare, one timely reminder of the chaos lurking in the world, probably saved McCain in New Hampshire, a state he had to win to save his candidacy.”

The assassination of Benazir Bhutto in December was an “unfortunate event,” says
Black. “But his knowledge and ability to talk about it reemphasized that this is
the guy who’s ready to be Commander-in-Chief. And it helped us.” As would, Black
concedes with startling candor after we raise the issue, another terrorist
attack on U.S. soil. “Certainly it would be a big advantage to him,” says Black.

This may carry a kernel of truth, but it still comes across as creepy fearmongering. Which brings me to Juan Cole. Writing on his Informed Comment blog, he slaps the campaign down, linking it to seven years of President Bush and Co. playing to our fears and calling for a different direction:

We don’t need any more of this politics of fear that Karl Rove, Dick Cheney and Bush gave to us. That McCain has such people around him is yet another indication that he is too close to Bush and Bushism to be allowed anywhere near the White House.

Nuff said.

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Meeting in the middle

The Permit Extension Act has been revised and approved by both houses of the state Legislature.

The bill — which correctly had been condemned by environmentalists and planning groups as a giveaway to developers (see my column)

The changes include not granting extensions for:

  • federal approvals;
  • permits issued under the Pinelands Protection Act “if the extension would result in a violation of federal law or any State rule or regulation requiring approval by the Secretary of the Interior”;
  • permits for projects in “environmentally sensitive area(s)”;
  • permits granted under the Highlands Water Protection and Planning Act;
  • permits granted under the Flood Hazard Area Control Act;
  • permits for projects in designated “coastal centers.”
  • municipal planning and zoning approvals for residential developments “where the master plan and zoning ordinance have been amended to rezone the property to industrial or commercial use subsequent to the expiration of the permit but prior to January 1, 2007, when the permit was issued for residential use.”

The compromise was agree to last week, with the blessing of the state’s major environmental groups because its scope has been significantly limited,and now goes to the governor.

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