...to run a sideshow.

Let's get this geek out of Congress and back into his cage where he belongs -- with a bottle of Thunderbird and a live chicken.

Thank you for being so active on this topic, and helping drive this campaign so that C. Carney KNOWS we are watching and participating. It may not change his vote, but the larger implications will be heard through the caucus.

This might be worth commenting on also. I was surprised you didn't mention it. Or did I miss it?

http://www.newsweek.com/id/134930/output/print

Why indeed is Hoyer connecting with Rockefeller on this issue? Has he stated his motivations?

I thought this whole FISA issue was being battered around by the House Judiciary Committee as an issue of constitutional interpretaion. Hoyer is not a member of that committee - why is he now spearheading this bill in the House?

Like many readers here, I follow politics pretty closely and have a fairly good grasp of the major issues. But I still have a hard time figuring out the machinations and undertakings of Congress. It doesn't surprise me that the Average Joe in this country stays completely apathetic about what their congresspeople are doing. Hell, a lot of people can't even name who they are.

They know something you don't.

Very likely, but equally likely its of no relevance to the issue at hand.

There is also the pressure of acutally being responsible for something rather than just yapping at people's ankles.

Something you would know nothing of, eh?

But as always I don't expect that kind of imagination from people convinced they are right with religious impenetrability.

Something you could teach college courses on, eh? I mean, when have you gotten something completely, stunningly, mind-numbingly wrong?

The Obamaniacs are already preemptively blaming any FISA backtracking on Hillary. They are saying that she is so evil that she will do anything to destroy this country. Talk about an over reactive bunch of loons. They blame every new crisis on "Shillary's" all-encompassing evil.

The only effective way I have heard to change our government is to oust all of the incumbent members of congress and scare the rest.

The hammer is "www.goooh.com", they seem to have the answer to this problem of ZERO government representation of the people.

Please look over their site and tell others about it.

or STFU. Yeah, genius, you're the only one in here who ever recognizes the similarity between the two choices we're currently stuck with. And we're all empty vessels, not worthy of being called your peers.

Retard.

Glenn, Hoyer may not be vulnerable, but is there any leverage to be gained by slamming him w/ the "telco immunity will so outrage a substantial minority of the Democratic-leaning voters that Democrats might well lose the General election" argument?

And Aych, if HRC is coronated, I'm going to vote for every Dem I can (that won't be many, I'm in TX) EXCEPT for her. But maybe I'm not average.

The ads are to inform the Blue Dogs' constituencies of their capitulation, so that hopefully voters will apply political pressure to their representatives. As GG mentioned, the ads are in place so that the Blue Dogs realize there is a political cost to cooperating with the GOP.

Hmm. Supposedly there are two parties, yet every single thing they do is in lockstep, even if theuy have to go back and fix any supposed differences later.

Yet, the rubes persist in their vehemence that there are still two distinct parties.

Nobody lifts a finger to question the hegemony, it just rolls over everything and transforms the US into an unrecognizable lump of a proto third world nation.

WOW, the CIA has made great strides in perfecting the mind control programming of you empty vessels who are supposedly my peers in this society.

I hope the campaign is directed towards getting the blue dogs to change their minds (actually votes), rather than destroying their reputations in their home districts.

No one gets to be a successful politician except by recognizing and responding to public pressure. In the end, if you're only worried about what team someone is playing for rather than the effect of their actual actions then you have already given up and might as well stay home.

It boggles the mind to think what possible advantage could be gained by giving a president with a 71% disapproval rating and some bloated, despised monopolies a gift, against the will of everyone who vaguely understands the issue. Even bribery oughtn't be enough. The telcos are smart enough not to even try flipping Democratic seats to Republican in this cycle, and they aren't even making a serious effort at PR or lobbying.

Glenn's hypothesis that some blue dogs just seem to have a hankering for immunity, darn it, is about the only explanation that holds water. Carney and his ilk deserve defeat not for corruption or weakness, but flat-out stupidity.

You are walking a tightrope in campaigning against blue dogs.

Is it better to have a Republican who always votes against progressive measures and in favor of Bush measures? At the moment the realistic choices in many districts in the South are a blue dog or a Republican. Isn't it better to keep local Democratic organizations alive? Without successful candidates, they tend to wither away.

I hope the campaign is directed towards getting the blue dogs to change their minds (actually votes), rather than destroying their reputations in their home districts.

As much as I would love to see any ad targeting Carney for his alliances, I fear it may be too late. Carney ran in the PA Democratic primary unopposed. The two Republicans running in their primary were remarkable only for their vying as to who was the most conservative, a word featured prominently in all of their advertisements.

Clearly, Carney's opponent would be no better. But at least he'd be a Republican, and so his support for such things would be less significant than Carney's.

What Democrats like Hoyer and Carney count on is that you will never challenge them or fight against them because you'll be afraid that, by doing so, you'll weaken them and help flip the district to the Republicans. They need to know that this fear won't protect them or else they have no reason to do anything but take you for granted and ignore you.

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.