The Power of One

On Monday, Senator Chris Dodd simply and forcefully showed what one principled man can do in America. Just when the rest of the Democratic Party was on the verge of the one billionth collapse to George W. Bush in a row, Dodd stepped in to stop the cave-in.

The issue at hand was giving retroactive immunity to the telecommunication companies for breaking the FISA law. First of all, think about that, why would you need immunity if you haven't broken the law? And if you broke the law, why should Congress let you get away with it? But of course, they were going to.

Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid planned to bring up the version of the new FISA bill that the Republicans supported. He favored the approach supported by Dick Cheney rather than the other version put together by Democratic Senator Pat Leahy. Why he did that is an open question, to say the least.

And, of course, our so-called Democratic leaders who are running for president, with the obvious exception of Sen. Dodd, were missing in action. I thought Fox News might devote their whole coverage to Senator Clinton today since she was a missing blond.

Meanwhile, Senator Obama made his bid for the Profiles in Courage Hall of Fame by issuing a press release saying since he didn't have to be there for the fight (because they would only counting votes against Dodd and he would be voting with Dodd), he wouldn't. In essence, he was saying -- since I don't have to be there, I won't. Inspiring!

But despite the fact that his Majority Leader sided with the Bush administration and none of the Democratic leading candidates for president showed up, Senator Dodd pressed on anyway. Because, maybe just one person could make a difference.

The first vote was 76-10 against Senator Dodd. It didn't look good. Trying to get forty Democrats to stand up to President Bush is a Herculean task. They're using to giving up without a fight. In fact, in his first speech of the morning Senator Dodd mentioned that the Democrats had said over and over that they would fight the next time against the next Bush administration abuse, but never did. And he said the time had come to draw the line. He said why not here, why not now?

Then when he began the fight a curious thing happened. It turned out the Republicans and the Bush folks weren't as mean and tough as advertised. The filibuster could have lasted 108 hours in all to get through all the cloture motions and the Senate would have gotten nothing done the week before Christmas break. They couldn't countenance that, so voila, victory!

Just that simple. Harry Reid came out and said they were going to table immunity for the telecoms and consider it after the break. The bill didn't pass and Bush and the people who helped him break the law were not given retroactive immunity for the crimes they might have committed.

Good guys win, bad guys lose. All it took was one Senator and an afternoon. And we stopped them cold in their tracks. Now, that wasn't so hard, was it?

Now, imagine if the Democrats all united to fight the Bush administration together. Then, they just might be able to beat the most unpopular president of all time every once in awhile.

Will other Democrats learn anything from this? Will they get the message that it doesn't take that much to fight these guys and that just one person can make a difference, let alone all of them fighting together? I hope so. I'd like to ask Senator Clinton if she got the message, but I couldn't find her.

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Comments

[seawolf77]

LOOK! There's a courageous Democrat. Where ? Where ? Where ? Ahhhh there ain't no such thing you know that.

[Nonamnesiac]

If I understand this correctly, Dodd supports the abridgement of civil liberties in the FISA Bill, he is only filibustering the Bill's retroactive pardon of the telecoms criminal and tortious behavior. If the Repubs agree not to pardon the telecoms, then he -- and nearly all of the rest of the Dems -- support an outrageous restriction on our civil liberties and warrantless wiretapping, which is the substance of this Bill.

Am I wrong on this?

[metsfan1]

I signed a petition to my Senators to back Senator Dodd; Clinton wasn't there and I have no idea how Schumer voted but I hope he did the right thing. As for Harry Reid, I e-mailed him and told him NO immuity but who knows if it was even read or mentioned to him? I just did what I could because it's all I could do. Good for Senator Dodd! I hope old giveemhellharry changes his mind.

[KansasKowboy]

Perhaps this battle that Dodd put up will lay the ground work to inspire the Dems and some Repubs to start with impeachment proceedings against Cheney at last.

[NoPCZone]

If we have not learned anything else from 2007, it is simply that Reid and Pelosi must depart from the Democratic Congressional leadership. I'm not sure which one holds the record for backing down without a fight more- but either way we lose.

I'm not even going to say thanks to Sen Dodd. He's just finally doing what he was elected and is paid to do.

[flatus]

The good new is that our fine telecom folks will be suffering from "sweaty balls" syndrome over the holiday break.

The bad new is that Reid is still Senate leader. Nothing can be done about this?

[lip11]

Now I don't know who to vote for in the Dem primaries: Kucinich who has courageously been one of the few voices calling out for impeachment, or Dodd who just displayed how little it takes to be a goddamned leader and stand up against the criminals in the white house.

Well, it's not much, but it's f*cking better than constantly capitulating to the worst most hated president in US history.

[schatsie]

So bloody tired of watching the Dems lie there and take it and then pretend that the Republicans are honorable.­..

Thank heavens Dodd finally stood up for the law!!!

No retroactive immunity! What a concept... Just like the idea of the Faith Based Initiatives becoming mormonized­....

[BMBTHC]

My head explodes thinking about how dismal things are and how brazenly the corporations run things. Who sells air time to the candidates? Who owns the air? Perhaps C-Span should be broadcast and the candidates given, not sold, time on C-Span. (Instead new Digital boxes will be subsidized so that I can watch F-Noose and absorb a few more Viagra commercial­s.) Perhaps corporate influences should be eradicated. Perhaps I should move to Mars.

[DrD]

This is so important. I contributed to Dodd's campaign. Right now, I'd vote for him in the primaries.

[jackstraw005]

this just in to our action 5 newsdesk. in a rare occurence, a spine was located in its proper location in a democratic senator today in washington dc. this is the first spine located in a democrat since they took control of congress. bush administration official were "amazed and confused" as sen chris dodd actually stood up and made his voice heard. in a related story, majority leader harry reid promised to cave immediately after the new year. stay tuned for more action news.

[jdm58]

Chris Dodd just posted a video on his website, telling people just how much their contacting the Senate in his favor meant. Go to
www.chrisdodd.com/victory
to hear his message of thanks, and also of caution- we must continue to pressure our Senators to do the right thing- this is far from over.

[aznurse]

Just the fact that we're on Huffpost indicates that we are interested in whats going on. MSM had hardly any news about what happened yesterday, and Dodds name was hardly mentioned. It was a pleasure to hear him speak instead of the stupid 2 min answers he has had to give for the "debates" Im hoping he'll ge more coverage, but I doubt it. I was so amused at the reasons for giving amnesty to the telcoms. Those clips would be a great campaign
commerical to show what he was fighting against!

[thinkbig]

"Good guys win, bad guys lose. All it took was one Senator and an afternoon. And we stopped them cold in their tracks. Now, that wasn't so hard, was it?"

Too bad -we- were the bad guys... thanks alot Reid.

[jdm58]

Although I applaud and thank Mr. Dodd for standing up to the mindless Republicans and spineless Democrats currently in the Senate, I must caution against a collective sigh of relief over FISA. There are two Bills, both have been tabled, but not killed. They will be revisited after the break. When the new Energy Bill passed last week, everyone was congratulating each other over getting the Bill through the Senate. What few mentioned (including HUFFPO surprisingly) was that the Bill that passed looked little like the original, having caved to coal and oil interests, taking out oil tax breaks and clean energy tax incentives. Only the car companies got nailed. Why? Thousands of letters over the need to raise CAFE standards went out to Congress. So, we need to keep up the offensive, and be specific in our requests. Otherwise, this issue will enter again through a back door when we least expect it.