Reply #9: Two reasons

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

The Senators deferred to both Gore, and most of America's wishes. Sadly, if you remember correctly, most Americans just wanted it over with because we have historically and massively short attention spans. Just like most of the votes that piss people off around here by Dem. leadership - they looked at the fact that we were now going to be in the minority and they decided that rather than piss off people by looking like sore losers risking pushing us even further into the minority, they did the thing that was unpopular amongst the base. It's a lose-lose situation, and whether or not they made the right decision is impossible to judge because of what's transpired the last 4 years. I don't think anyone could've predicted things would be THIS bad. I, personally, thought a Bush presidency would be horrible before he was even nominated, but even I didn't think he could possibly drive us to this depth. It's totally beyond reason, but he's accomplished it somehow. The Dem leadership made the decision they had to at the time it was made. Personally, I don't agree with that decision, but was an incredibly tough call to make either way and I don't blame them for making it. It really would've been political suicide if we had pressed on and lost anyway. Oh, as for your mystery, if a single Dem Senator signed it, it would've been exactly the same as if every single one of them did BECAUSE it would've only taken one. If this were a roll call vote, I guarantee you there would've been plenty of protest votes. That wasn't the case because we had no such luxury on this one.

As for the "reading bills" part of your comments... You hit the nail on the head here. The point Moore should've made was that they didn't allow ANYONE enough time to vote on this thing. What he also doesn't reconcile was this - he adds the part about the guy who was harassed by the FBI for something he said in a gym locker room, but he fails to acknowledge that this created an unbelievable political climate on Capitol Hill as well. I worked on the Hill during this time - we really couldn't do a goddamn thing. A few fringe Dem. Congressmen from safe Congressional districts stood up, but that's it. Fortunately, I worked for a guy that was one of them, and even despite his best efforts, it all fell on deaf ears. Dems never stood a chance against the Patriot Act, nor did they stand a chance against any of the reactionary, ill-fated 9/11 legislation. It absolutely sucks that no one read it, but the story should've been about how Republicans abused the fuck out of 9/11 to ram their greedy, invasive agenda down America's throat. He could've done plenty with that plot line, how they've wrapped the American flag around un-American things in order to get their way... but he chose to ride around in an ice cream truck reading the Patriot Act. Funny, but not very effective, as it's not proving the right point.