This may have been stated in an earlier post but when I see both Republicans and Democrats mindlessly working to give Bush what he wants regardless of what the American people want I have to wonder who Dick was listening in on all these years. He sure has not disrupted any major terrorist attacks but he has obtained mindless loyalty from both sides of the aisle. I wonder these things because the positions of so many of our congressmen make no sense what so ever and fly in the face of logic and public opinion. So what kind of dirt does our dear Vice President have on so many members of congress and maybe even the President himself?

Makes you wonder…..

.....it's obvious that Glenn isn't about to cross swords with the House leadership. Not a surprise when there are small fry to beat up on. -- shooter242

AND!!!! Glenn won't take on the entire racist structure of American society!!!

How dare he focus on achievable goals. The gall of the man!

Exercising our free speech rights as Americans = an "Intifada" against Carney?

Get.Off.The.Lunch.

Politicians sometimes do things they’d rather not let the public know about and will bring all of the power at their disposal to keeping it hidden. They might even say it’s for your own good, too keep you safe. You know in your heart it's true. Search your feelings.

Touche'.
Sadly though, this GG post and the intifada declared on Rep Carney are all amazingly superficial. This isn't about freshmen BlueDogs, Steny Hoyer is the #2 Dem in the House and you may believe that he doesn't sneeze without permission of the HBIC Ms Pelosi. So why is the leadership of the House doing a deal? As the story goes even Dem staffers don't get it.

There are only two possibilities...
(1)either there is some financial or philosophical impetus being brought to bear just like the Generals salonistas have been bashing. Or,
(2) there really is some security issue, that is worth risking the wrath of the nutroots.

In both cases, there is something going on that we don't know about, and if it's (1) then the nutroots and associated media are falling down on the job of investigating the "hidden" sources of bias. In either event, it's obvious that Glenn isn't about to cross swords with the House leadership. Not a surprise when there are small fry to beat up on.

"The overwhelming majority of the people in this country see no value in launching a futile lawsuit against telcos, are not terrorists or sympathizers and have no fear of their privacy rights being tread upon in the name of national security, and therefore tend to come out in favor of the Bushies on this issue."

I suppose there's a REMOTE possibility that's not simply an assertion you pulled out of your butt - if you ignore the actual evidence (polls) that Glenn has repeatedly cited to the contrary.

The overwhelming majority of the people in this country see no value in launching a futile lawsuit against telcos, -- nvizibl

The overwhelming majority of the people in this country see nothing about this topic -- therefore your unsupported assertion that they "come out in favor" of anything pertaining to it is ridiculous ......anonymoose.

Karrsic, if you're going to mix metaphors, best to do it with food.

Buttered bread and carrot stix would make a nice snack right about now.

:~)

During the campaign, Carney raised money with a wide-variety of supporters including Sen. Barack Obama, Sen Joe Biden[15], Rep. Jay Inslee[16], Rep. Jack Murtha[17]M, and Richard Perle, a leading Bush Administration advocate of war with Iraq who more recently has criticized the decision to go to war[18] Douglas Feith, another Pentagon hawk, congratulated Carney on Election Night.[19]

...who might also be worth targeting and calling about this issue.

Surely, Biden and Murtha might feel a bit of buyer's remorse in this case, if only because they dislike most of Bush's agenda, and may not have expected that Carney would be supporting it. And, if they helped Carney get elected, perhaps they also have some sway with him.

I don't know much about Inslee, but both Murtha and Biden are "neighbors," if nothing else.

Perle and Feith... a waste of time to contact either of them.

Hoyer and his litter recognize this and have backed off in time for the election--a prudent political decision.

You seem to be making the same mistake Brooks, Kristol, and the rest of the Beltway/Village Pundits do: asserting (I paraphrase) 'the American people believe' X without providing evidence that "X" is anything more than your personal opinion.

How do you know the American public see lawsuits against the telecos as "futile" or that they don't worry their privacy is/will be violated by this out-of-control surveillance?

Please, elaborate and define your evidence for this.

from The Hill article:

Harman acknowledged, however, that there is a split in the Blue Dog Coalition and that some members support a Senate-crafted overhaul of FISA while she and others say it gives “blank check” immunity to telecommunications companies that turned over customer data to intelligence authorities. [emphasis added]

So, apparently, they're not a rock-solid block. However, 21 of them are already on record as supporting the Senate bill, and they will be the primary targets of Republicans re: signing the petition that will allow it all to move forward on simple majorities. (Too bad our team didn't try to use that tactic when they were in the minority...)

For some reason, Nancy Pelosi is letting Steny Hoyer take the lead on this one...

What a glorious feeling it must be to find the first missplelling and post about it. I wish I had nothing else to do but wait for Glen's daily post and pounce on the typos. But, alas, I have other nits to pick. Thanks for holding up my end;)

The Democrats have a large margin in the House. It's going to get larger this year. The benefit of a campaign of this sort and the message it sends (and the potential to change behavior) vastly outweighs the risk that it will end up defeating a single bad Democratic House member and replacing him with one bad Republican. - GG

It is very likely that the Democrats will have a "real" majority in the Senate, too, after November. And even if a Republican were to replace Hoyer, he or she would not have the same seniority, and some new leadership would then be in order.

Sometimes a symbolic head on a pike can be very effective.