Thursday, June 2, 2005
I get mail
Unusually strong language in a "Dear Constituent" letter I got today from my Congressman, Ed Pastor:
As you probably know, the Republican leadership shut the Democrats out of all negotiations in the conference on the supplemental [appropriations] bill. The final bill resulting from that one-sided input contained provisions from H.R. 418 allowing the Department of Homeland Security to pre-empt state and federal laws to build border fences and imposing stricter asylum standards for those seeking U.S. residency. [...] The bill also mandates that states share drivers' data among themselves and with the federal government, a provision that has privacy advocates concerned about data security. [...] I found these provisions to be poorly thought-out and fraught with negative secondary ramifications. In addition, I am opposed to the leadership's decision to place the provisions in a defense supplemental at a time when our troops are desperate for new funding - presenting lawmakers with a form of legislative blackmail.It's good to see Dems in Congress finally waking up to the fact that it's not politics as usual these days. We are up against a regime that has nothing but contempt for democracy, consensus and basic decency, and that is obsessed with getting its way in everything, down to the minutest detail - and if it does so by foul and despicable means, so much the better, in Karl Rove's view. To respond with stilted courtesy and slavish adherence to unwritten codes of gentlemanly conduct, as the Democrats have been doing for far too long, is political suicide.
Let's encourage the Dems and the few remaining sane Republicans in Congress to take off the gloves, grow a spine, and start putting up a fight!
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