I agree that the Democrats have been active enablers since taking charge of Congress after the 2006 election (and indeed were silent enablers prior to that because of their lack of opposition while in the minority). The problem is that there are 535 members of Congress, slightly less than half of whom are Republicans. I am not saying that given the closeness that the Democrats are hampered (unlike other people whom Glenn mentions in his post). However, pressure cannot only be brought to bear only on Democrats (whether actual or DINO). We must also let our Republican representatives know what we think.

I live in Peter Roskam's district, and he has completely adapted the Republican playbook of name calling and factual distortion, despite the fact that he narrowly won his election 51% to 49%. At the same time, his website contains no statements on FISA or the current status of the Iraq war. We must start chipping away at these Republicans as well. The next time I find out when he is going to make an appearance back in the district, I will be there front and center asking him about FISA, waterboarding, toture, and Iraq. And he better have some damn good answers:

* He had better not tell me that FISA is to complicated to understand (ala Joe Klein), because he and I went to the same law school, so if I can't understand FISA, then how in the hell would he be able to;

* He had better not try to tell me that waterboarding is not torture, because I doubt that he has more wisdom and knowledge on this matter than John McCain;

* He had better not try to tell me that the surge is working and that we need to trust the President and give him more time; would Mr. Roskam, a plaintiff's personal injury attorney, have accepted these same assurances from a large corporate defendant that was dragging its feet on producing evidence crucial to his client's case? (BTW, if you go to Roskam's website, it mentions that he graduated from law school, but completely omits the fact that he is one of the dreaded PI trial lawyer Republican boogeymen)

At this point, letter writing and telephone calls are not enough, because we never actually get through to our representatives and Senators. We must go into their offices and demand to see them face to face. We must attend their rallies or their speeches and ask them the hard questions that I see discussed and debated here. These Republicans are afraid of human contact with their constituents, and will run screaming from it like a vampire from a cross. We must get in their faces and show the world what cowards they are. Only then, I suspect, will the MSM (copyright 2007 by the Republican Party) begin to arise from its stupor and syncophany and show their veiwers how the Republican party actually works.

The Republicans have been treating politics since 1994 like a full contact sport. If our Democratic representatives in Congress will not hit back, then it is time to send them back to the bench and show the Republicans that we are not afraid!

The goings on in the Senate today (and in general) remind me of an episode of Murphy Brown. Although I cannot remember all of the details, the plot involved Murphy Brown having to appear before a Senate Committee because she included an anonymous source in one of her stories. At the time of her appearance Murphy Brown was pregnant. After she refused to name her source, the Committee adjourned and met in closed session. They were faced with the decision whether to hold Murphy in contempt. Not wanting to look bad for sending a pregnant woman to jail, the head of the Committee decided that the vote would be 5-4 against contempt, and told everyone how they would vote. One of the members of the Committee then started telling an off-color joke while the scene faded to black and the credits started to role.

Everyone in the Senate has had sufficient time to prepare each of their parts in this drama, and to make themselves come off in the best light possible. There will be no surprises because the Senate exists to prevent "surprises" and to preserve "order" and "decorum."

I think it says a lot about the times in which we live that we have gone from the popular portrayal of a journalist as seeker of the truth, regardless of party or belief (Murphy Brown) to a spot-on satire of journalists as ignorant buffons (The Daily Show and The Colbert Report). Sometime after 1994, journalists were told that the search for truth was not as important as the need to toe the party line. We have Glenn to thank for continuing to point out the press's failings.