...prompted me to send an email to the article's author, David Stout.

Here's the NY Times today. It's a bit better.

Democrats Delay a Vote on Immunity for Wiretaps

Doug Mills/The New York Times

By ERIC LICHTBLAU

Published: December 18, 2007

http://tinyurl.com/2fxxcg

Knew that NY Times article I submitted looked familiar. Glenn linked to it this morning. Duh!

This could be worth a grin. From an interview Salon did with Harry Reid in 2006 reproduced at Kos:

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/12/18/73338/137/808/423291

Are the blogs just another constituency for you, sort of an online AFL-CIO or something?

I wish that were the case, but it's simply not the truth. I've come to learn one thing: They're not controllable. If you do something they like, they pat you on the back. If you do something they don't like, they kick you in the rear end.

Pedinska: Unfortunately, I've not yet had the luxury of reading Lord of the Rings ... so I had to look up Arwen in Wikipedia. My role here is even smaller than the Wiki assignment to Arwen in the trilogy. But, I'm flattered by the nomination and the association. It's more than lovely to be included. If you could see me elsewhere on the web you'd likely nominate me for Kate the Shrew ;-)

DCLaw1: Your response to Bill Owen was to pluck precisely the same quote from Atrios that popped into my mind when I read Bill's comment.

I don't know much about Matt Bai, but he wrote a piece in the NY Times Magazine that I thought was interesting.

The Way We Live Now | The Web Users’ Campaign

By MATT BAI | Published: December 9, 2007

Before they chartered planes and opened teeming offices in Des Moines or Manchester, even before they announced their lofty ambitions to the world, the current field of presidential candidates set about absorbing the lessons of Howard Dean’s 2004 campaign. [...] One of the first things they did was to sign on a new class of online organizers and fund-raisers. The Web was the new frontier of American politics, and the candidates intended to exploit it. ...

Now, as we come to the end of a tumultuous political year, it seems clear that the candidates and their advisers absorbed the wrong lessons from Dean’s moment, or at least they failed to grasp an essential truth of it, which is that these things can’t really be orchestrated. Dean’s campaign didn’t explode online because he somehow figured out a way to channel online politics; he managed this feat because his campaign, almost by accident, became channeled by people he had never met. ...

I thought of this article when I read Reid's 2006 quote at Kos:

I wish that were the case, but it's simply not the truth. I've come to learn one thing: They're not controllable. If you do something they like, they pat you on the back. If you do something they don't like, they kick you in the rear end.

It's interesting. Reid is likely still looking for that old style party politic where precinct captains delivered votes, and the activists were constrained by space, distance, and access. Where groups could be controlled because to get to, have face time with, get the ear of, someone meant you had to go through someone else. And, that someone else served as a filter - sorting, categorizing, promoting or denying according to the filter's whim. Access is a different animal now. And, the opportunity for control has been minimized.

It's an interesting piece by Bai. And, worth a look. Many of these old political war horses are working with a much older model as a new model grows up, around, and under them.

I have a link that was created just for you. Pay particular attention to the last graph.

http://atrios.blogspot.com/2007_12_16_archive.html#4363285586759810970

Senator Feingold put up a guest blog at TPMCafe for those who may not have seen it.

Temporary Success in the Senate

By Senator Russ Feingold

As you all know by now, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid decided last night to pull the deeply flawed Intelligence Committee FISA bill from the floor. He announced that we would return to the bill in January...

He does a nice job of outlining the issues to be included in further communications and efforts to sway our Congressional representatives as we move towards the next round. I am reminded that in this next stage House Reps may be as important to us as our respective Senators.

I live in a rural red area of a very red state, being a liberal here has been an extremely lonely existence.

This resonates for me. And, it can be a *very* lonely experience. A wise teacher once drilled into my head, "You have to meet people in their own language window." Sometimes, if I listen closely I discover I can translate their needs and desires into a language that matches my own. Some are more wedded to a form of expression, a lexicon, a choice of words that is distinctly Right-speak, but when I dig down to what is beneath the rhetoric, their fears and mine share more than is evident at first glance. Often we agree on the Ends, even if we don't agree on the Means to achieve those Ends. Still, coincident ends suggests the means can sometimes be negotiated. When they can't, or I tire of the rhetoric, I escape online - to places like here.

What keeps me from despair is the clear sense that my life-clock ticks now. My existence is now, and it is what I make of it. My mother is glad not to have to live my life (finally!). And, had I children, I'm sure I could reach a point where I would be glad that I didn't have to live theirs, either. Each generation has its own challenges...it's on date with history. There's no avoiding that.