Nancy and the Blue Dogs

The awful FISA bill, passed yesterday by the Senate, which grants the president broad powers to spy on US citizens, and provides retroactive immunity for the telecom companies that cooperated with the administration to break the law is now being supported by a group of Blue Dog Democrats in the house, who have sent Speaker Pelosi a letter asking her to introduce the same version of the Senate bill so that W can snoop through your emails and phone calls in gross violation of the Fourth Amendment in order to track down the IMs and funny emails you've been sending to Osama in his cave in Tora Bora.

At almost the same moment, Al Wynn (D), an eight term Congressman from Prince George County, a reliable Bush supporter, emblematic of the acquiescent Democrats in Congress over the past eight years, was soundly throttled by a progressive upstart, Donna Edwards, who tacked to the traditional Democratic (even liberal) position in this strongly Democratic district:

Wynn, who had served in the 4th District for eight terms, had been targeted by an aggressive advertisement campaign, funded in part with hundreds of thousands of dollars from national labor groups and liberal organizations. The effort apparently convinced voters that Wynn had fallen out of step with his overwhelmingly Democratic district during his 15 years in Congress.

What the beltway insiders do not realize is that the winds have shifted enormously. The WSJ predictably lauded the FISA bill, noting that the Republican party can use Obama's vote against the bill against him in the fall. They believe that Obama has made a political misstep by giving this discredited, loathed and loathsome administration the right to tear the Constitution to shreds. That's not the zeitgeist that seems to be in play in Prince George's county, and Nancy Pelosi ought to realize that.

In a bold example of leadership and resolve, Hillary decided to skip the vote.