UGH - spineless Dems yet again snatch defeat from the jaws of victory

Karl Rove & Co is right about something: we have many spineless appeasers among the ranks congressional Democrats. The Neville Chamberlain wing of the party, unable to stand up for its beliefs and under the tragic impression that one can negotiate with terrorists, seems to believe that if one grants enough leeway to those who wish them harm, it will placate those forces and keep them at bay.

Those Rovian hatemongers are wrong about who those appeasers are, though. Ironically, the situation we see is that the true merchants of terror are those who would slander fellow Americans for partisan political gain. The real appeasers are the "Blue Dogs" who mistakenly think that actively enabling the agenda of the conservative establishment and the Bush administration will somehow exempt them from nasty attack ads in the fall.

And these milquetoast traitors have just shredded the fourth amendment because they're afraid to be called weak on terror by KKKarl Rove and his Very Serious Pundit Friends, who will attack them anyway.

Apparently, the loser "Blue Dogs" just can't handle doing their jobs and holding this criminal president accountable to the rule of law. Instead, they feel the need to capitulate on FISA and telecom immunity....after they had already won.

Steny Hoyer, I'm looking directly at you. You are the troglodyte who decided to unilaterally defy the vast majority of your caucus and value AT&T's profits over the American people's freedom. If you said no to them and the Bush junta, we would still have a recourse of action for illegal spying. We would have perhaps obtained evidence necessary to build an impeachment or criminal case against a president that you say you oppose. But that might make Sean Hannity mad, and we can't have that!

If Steny Hoyer remains the Democratic majority leader into 2009, it may be worthwhile for progressive activists to consider whether unconditional support for the Democratic Party is really the best tactic to achieve positive change in this country. Perhaps the Democratic Party just cannot be reformed into a strong voice for the American people.

I'd like to add one more thing. As the standard bearer of the party and likely the next president, Barack Obama has the power to stop this atrocity. He can make a few phone calls to his congressional colleagues and come out publicly to denounce the pursuers of capitulation. This is a major test of what kind of transformational leader Obama really will be. Here's hoping he comes out firmly on the side of the Constitution.