What Dems should say about FISA (and it will be broached again)

[babylonsister]

http://www.tpmcafe.com/blog/coffeehouse/2007/aug/08/repeat_after_me

Repeat After Me
By Michael Bérubé | bio

snip//


So I’ve written you a speech for the next time something like this comes up (and it will, I assure you). I hope you’ll use it– I think you’ll find it very effective. See, the thing is that you’ve got to keep reminding people– and, in the process, reminding yourselves– that President Bush is widely disliked and mistrusted, and with very good reason. You have to keep reminding people– and reminding yourselves– that when you trust him, you get screwed. And you have to keep reminding people– and reminding yourselves– that Republicans, far from being “tough on terror,” are in fact “the President’s party” and “the President’s remaining supporters,” i.e., the ones who brought you Iraq, Katrina, secret torture programs, and crumbling municipal infrastructure. Keep referring to them that way: the President’s party, the President’s supporters. You’ll be glad you did.

It’s really very simple, you know. When the criminal gang in the White House demands that you excise a few more clauses from the Constitution, your job is to just say no. Please don’t forget this next time. In fact, you should probably print out this post and keep a copy handy at all times. Thanks for listening!

OK, now repeat after me:


I come to you today to explain why I voted against the recent FISA bill. You may have heard some members of the press criticizing my vote; you may have heard members of the President’s party charging me with being “soft on terror.” I think that is a despicable charge, and I want to suggest to the President’s remaining supporters that their disdain for our nation’s civil liberties belies their claims to be defenders of “freedom.”

But I didn’t vote against the FISA bill only because I believe in Americans’ civil liberties. I also voted against it because I believe we have no reason to trust this President and his attorney general with any further expansion of executive powers. Their open contempt for Congressional oversight, for the American system of checks and balances, has been startlingly clear for years now. This is a President who simply does not believe he is accountable to anyone or anything– not even to the Constitution, which he is sworn to uphold but which he reads as a blueprint for simple executive fiat. And this is an attorney general who believes he can manipulate the judiciary branch for partisan purposes, and then lie gleefully to Congress about it– when, of course, he is not refusing to answer questions altogether.

I want to remind you all– and my colleagues in the President’s party– that whenever we have given this President the benefit of the doubt, the results have been disastrous for our country. Over four years ago, this President plunged us into a war that most Americans now recognize as one of the most militarily, politically, and diplomatically destructive wars this country has ever embarked upon. He justified that war, as he now justifies spying on Americans, as part of a “war on terror”; but the war in Iraq has been a terrible setback in our struggle against Islamic extremism, and the President’s domestic spying program, like his creation of secret detention-and-torture sites around the globe, has badly eroded our nation’s moral fiber. This President has shown time and again that he cannot be considered worthy of our trust; he has broken his vow to uphold the Constitution of the United States, and he has appointed an attorney general who believes, incredible as it may sound, that he himself is above the law. There is no reason whatsoever to give the President the powers he now demands.

The vast majority of the American people know this already. Less than thirty percent of them approve of the job this President is doing. To put this FISA bill in perspective, one would have to imagine Richard Nixon in 1974, with his 27 percent approval rating in the depths of the Watergate scandal, demanding from Congress the right to spy on his enemies– including his enemies in Congress. It would have been unthinkable for that Congress to give in to President Nixon’s demands, in order to help the President further undermine the Constitution and the rule of law; and it would be just as unthinkable today for this Congress to give in to President Bush’s demands, in order to help the President further undermine the Constitution and the rule of law. I will not be party to anything so foolish or destructive. I voted against this bill because I am loyal to this country and I do not trust this President– and I am proud of my vote.