[NYTr] A Day of Democratic Party Surrender

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

sent by Ed Pearl

Surrender, Dorothy


Campaign for America's Future - Oct 9, 2007
http://commonsense.ourfuture.org/blog/rick_perlstein

"Two capitulations by congressional Democrats
today should have progressives marching on the
Capitol with pitchforks".

by Rick Perlstein

Quite a day for Democratic capitulations.

Early this August, recall, Democrats were asked by the
administration to cooperate in passing a technical fix
in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act so the NSA
could listen in on foreign-to-foreign calls looped
thorough U.S. facilities. Democrats replied, "yes, of
course, that's perfectly reasonable" - which it was.

Then the Administration promptly sandbagged them by
ramming through a radical bill that went far further
than what had just been agreed to - "seemingly subtle
changes in legislative language," the New York Times
reported, that "would sharply alter the legal limits on
the government's ability to monitor millions of phone
calls and e-mail messages going in and out of the
United States." Even the neo-cons now running the
Washington Post editorial page judged it an outrage -
"strong-armed through both chambers by an
administration that seized the opportunity to write its
warrantless wiretapping program into law  -  or, more
precisely, to write it out from under any real legal
restrictions."

Then, two weeks ago, we learned that they greased the
skids for this madness by laundering a bogus terror
threat against Capitol Hill.

Not to fear, Democratic leaders assured us. The blanket
eavesdropping was authorized for a mere six months, at
which time they promised to fix the outrage.

Apparently, they changed their mind.

"Democrats Seem Read to Extend Wiretap Power", the
Times today informs us - now, not in six months.

Why the rush? It turns out to be very simple. The
Justice Department said "jump!" So how does a majority
party that, had they resisted, would have been both
politically and morally in the right respond? By
replying, of course, "How high?" Because, the Times
quotes some professor, "Many members continue to fear
that if they don't support whatever the president asks
for, they'll be perceived as soft on terrorism."

How I wish these members would read Glenn Greenwald,
who demonstrates that those fears are absurd.

But then, moving to our second astonishing Democratic
capitulation of the day, these are the same people who
can't get through, or refuse to get through, a bill to
tax the income of private-equity firm execs -
billionaires! - at the ordinary rate of 35 percent,
instead of the current 15 percent. The Washington Post
is reporting that Harry Reid met with private-equity
firms and told them not to worry: no bill on carried
interest would get through this year. He claims there's
simply not enough time. And that it has nothing to do
with one of the largest lobbying campaigns on record,
encompassing some twenty firms and a single payment by
one private-equity firm, the Blackstone Group, of $3.74
million, to its own Gucci Gulf denizens - "one of the
largest recorded fees to any lobbying firm during a six
month period."

Yes, not enough time. For if the measure doesn't pass
this session, it won't go anywhere in 2008 - for, as
the Post points out, recording the conventional wisdom
of a city gone mad, "lawmakers and lobbyists agree that
if the tax is not raised this year, its chances are not
strong in 2008, either; Congress tends to be leery of
tax increases in election years."

Even tax increases on billionaires. What a world!

[Rick Perlstein is the author of Before The Storm:
Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American
Consensus, winner of the 2001 Los Angeles Times Book
Award for history. From the summer of 2003 until 2005
he covered the presidential campaigns as chief national
political correspondent for the Village Voice. He is
currently working on a sequel to Before the Storm
tentatively titled Nixonland: The Politics and Culture
of the American Berserk, 1965-1972. In 2006 and 2007 he
wrote a biweekly column for The New Republic Online.
Perlstein is now senior fellow at the Campaign for
America's Future, for whom he writes the blog The Big
Con.]

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