I’m not much of a Democratic activist, but I’ll take a swing at Kevin Drum’s question regarding the Democrats’ spinelessness with regard to civil liberties:
When we blogosphere types complain about this weak-kneed attitude, are we complaining because (a) we think the centrists are wrong; they could keep their seats in marginal districts even if they toed the progressive line on national security issues. Or (b) because we don’t care; they should do the right thing even if it means losing next November?
I’m not sure about “the progressive line on national security” in general, but with regard to FISA, I find it awfully hard to believe that telecom immunity is a losing issue for the Democrats. I find it awfully hard to imagine somebody’s Republican challenger running attack ads on the telco immunity issue. I mean, between this, FEMA, Haliburton, and the Blackwater fiasco, the Democrats will have a potent narrative about how the President has put cronyism above the interests of the country. If a Democratic politician can’t at least spin the telco immunity issue to a draw, it’s a miracle he got elected to Congress in the first place.
Now, of course the Republican candidate can still run generic “Rep. Smith hates the troops and loves the terrorists” ads. But as Max Cleland discovered in 2002, Republicans call Democrats soft on terrorism pretty much regardless of how they vote. So I think it’s better to have a clear, easily-explained position on the issue (and “telecom companies should obey the law” seems like a pretty clear position to me) than to curl up into a fetal position and vote with the president on everything related to terrorism in the hope that it will save them.
Spending your life in a defensive crouch simply ensures that the other team gets to define the terms of the debate. The way you win an argument like this is by going on offense. The DCCC should start running ads in swing districts touting the courage of Democratic incumbents in standing up to Pres. Bush and his cronies in the telecom industry. Tie this issue to Haliburton, Blackwater, and “Heck-of-a-job” Brownie’s handling of Katrina. Like those folks, AT&T have sold out your rights in exchange for lucrative government contracts. I guess you’d have to run an ad like that by a focus group before you’d know how effective it was, but surely something like that would work better than the current “cave in and hope they’re nice to us” strategy.
The Technology Liberation Front is the tech policy blog dedicated to keeping politicians' hands off the 'net and everything else related to technology.