Per TPM at http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/004502.php

Tim Starks of Congressional Quarterly reports that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) plans to bring the Senate's surveillance bill up for floor debate in mid-November. That's despite the hold that Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT) plans to place on the measure...

Thank you very much Glen for keeping this issue clear, front and center. This is what I did and wrote:

I have been following the FISA issue closely. I think it is wrong to extend amnesty to the telecommunication companies that broke the law and aided the president in unlawful and unconstitutional surveillance of American citizens. Senator Dodd's hold is the first bold action from any of the Presidential contenders. I now see him as a man with integrity and vision in these difficult times. My wife and I were so moved by this action we contributed $500 to Senator Dodd's campaign today.

The dark occasion of the Mukasey confirmation-to-be, addressed in Glenn's update, is indeed an appropriate yang to the yin of Senator Dodd's welcome principled action today. I made this comment elsewhere recently:

I’d just as soon have the abominable formality of confirmation hearings held secretly in the dead of night, the way unpopular legislation is passed.

It’s always the same tired farce: Senators showboat and grandstand to the cheap seats, make tendentious, bloviating speeches wrapped around the pretext of questioning the nominee, harrumph about Grave Concerns and Reservations, and then rubber-stamp the nominee, just as we always knew they would.

Leahy already made a deal to lighten up on the investigation of DOJ “irregularities” during Gonzalez’ tenure in exchange for President Unitard nominating an “acceptable” AG candidate; I’m sure Mukasey’s in.

This exercise has all the authenticity and seriousness of a porn flick, down to the simulated passion of professional actors.

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Whether there's an explicit gentleman's agreement to give Mukasey a pass, or just an intuitive common understanding, it is perfectly defensible in the Flatlander process-and-strategy obsessed mindset of the moderate partisan loyalist: picking the battles; keeping the powder dry; evaluating the cost/(political) benefits; not making the perfect yada yada yada...

IMO, setting aside for the moment Dodd's exceptional conduct today, I believe that there is a profound difference between the present generation of the US political elite and the generation who presided over Nixon's untimely exit in 1974. To offer a very generalized, rough, and admittedly unresearched view, I believe that Sam Ervin, Judge John Sirica et al, straightforwardly believed that there were solemn duties and responsibilities inherent in their high offices that transcended mere political calculation. Even John Dean abandoned his partisan and personal loyalties and came in from the cold.

What I am calling the "Flatlander" chessboard-perspective of politics as an elaborate wrestling match between contestants is certainly real, and a compelling essence of political life and action. But then, the chessboard wasn't the ultimate "four corners" of the Constitutionally-grounded sociopolitical compact with We the People. Politicians still recognized and respected that they were responsible for executing formal duties of office that trumped political calculation.

I believe that the blowback from the Nixon Interruptus era and the contrived, pretextual obscenity of the Clinton impeachment propelled the political elite into a nihilistic vacuum in which political calculation is indeed the be-all and end-all. I believe this to be a symptom, perhaps fatal, of the decadence of our political process. The transmogrification of politicians from at least occasional high-minded selfless leaders into grubby technocratic deal-makers, unwilling to take risks or grasp the nettle in such high-stakes proceedings as nominating an attorney-general, renders the politically sacrosanct principles embedded in the Constitution merely "quaint".

The Democrats, or at least their leadership, is either co-opted, complicit, or craven-- or all of the above. Politics ain't beanbag, it's said-- but I would welcome watching the Dems fling a few beanbags like Dodd flung at the telecom Goliaths today.

lawyermom @1:56-

I need a change of hands when I'm carting a heavy bushel-basket of root crops up to Capital Hill. I change hands with anyone who helps lug a heavyweight weight of any-item( hot air) alone toward a desired destination.

Left/Right- switch hands, sit down. dance 'round, sip a brew, borehole, but keep hauling up the Hill the root crops...even if feeling some dismay.

Or, so-Grudgingly.

O, M. Mukasey yesterday.

O, hay- yippee, Dodd today?

I do believe in a radical change,

And a total upheaval trans-formation of a psyche.

That's when the real serious individual inward work commences.

I also contributed to his campaign. I could not donate enough to make much of a difference -- it made me feel in a very visceral way how the wealthy can drive the direction of the country.

I just contributed $100 to Chris Dodd's campaign. Then I went to Barack Obama's campaign website and told them that I had just contributed to Dodd and why I had done so.

be sure to let the other member-of-the-Senate presidential candidates know that their failure to stand up to the Republicans on this and other issues has lost them your vote. Can they join in the hold or put on a new hold if Reid overrides Dodd's?

A yellow basket of healing herbs: sage, fennel, oregano, basil, garlic, etc., is the proper sentiment. Try not to measure.

I forgot what I was gonna say [?]: something about Mukasey- and the voiced, ripple of "tough" opposition to Bushwhacks of Ceo's gulping, not sipping, fine red-wine...I mean, literally, guzzling, slurping, the human blood for monetary profits to enhance the Global Profiteering. Yep.

Is this ot? O, or ot? I am never too certain,

O, or too real damn sure. I'm just unbeliever?

O, help thou my sincere unbelief. I'd shut up.

We need to stand behind Dodd, not just with contributions and emails (although it's AMAZING and wouldn't it make real NEWS if his financial picture became competitive because of this) but also with continued phone calls to people like Reid who supposedly want to bring this thing to the floor, etc.

And let's quit trashing Democrats, except to their offices, to them. The Mainstream Media has picked up this "Why hasn't the Democratic party solved all the problems that this administration has started" meme, and it really gets tiring. It's true that because a few sellouts are ruining our image, there are good democrats that need us all behind us. But it's not good to assist these fascists in making Republicans and Democrats seem like functional equivalents. It's not true.