Obama's FISA Cave In: A Reverse "Souljah" Moment

As he morphs from St. Obama of the Primaries to Village Barack of the General, Obama is quickly abandoning the liberal savior guise that got him from point A to point B. He went before AIPAC and to out Likud the Likudniks to the point where he had to backtrack from a testament that Jerusalem would be Israel's undivided capital. Echoing his previous support for the execrable Joe Lieberman, he cut a radio ad supporting Georgia's Bush-loving, conservative Democratic Rep. John Barrow against a progressive challenger. He remained silent for a long while, and then issued a weak tea statement on the abominable FISA legislation essentially legalizing Bush's surveillance illegalities.

Obama's moves are tactical and strategic shifts away from the Washington Reformer he was during the Democratic primary and toward the Washington Establishment figure he seems to believe will win him the general.

On the FISA move, blogger Digby stated, "I am tempted to say this is a Sistah Soljah [sic] moment, wherein Barack makes it clear to the Villagers that he is not one of the DFHs [Dirty Fucking Hippies], despite all their ardent support. Nothing is more associated with us than this issue. It may even make sense on some sort of abstract level. He's obviously decided that he has to run to the right pretty hard to counteract that 'most liberal Senator' label."

He's also taken some pretty hard hits on FISA from progressive blogs like Glenn Greenwald's and Talking Points Memo, the latter headlining, "Obama Backs Surveillance Cave." Atrios awarded Obama the coveted "Wanker of the Day" award.

Obama will obviously do what it takes to gain the Presidency, and that is fantastic. Only a hard-assed pol is going to win this thing. But seeming abandonment of progressivism puts him in a bind. He is alienating the base by flouting the principles he had convinced them he held dear--and he hasn't the strong progressive history to winkingly signify that he's only joking.

When Markos Moulitsas of Daily Kos admiringly wrote, "Obama, by the way, repudiated [the centrist Democratic Leadership Council] three times," was the praise only for political strategy, or did it include progressive policies as well? On the latter, Obama has traveled a long way on the good faith of one anti-war vote, placed at a time when he had much less to lose.

Since then, however, he has failed to draw a line in the sand. On what progressive issue has he taken a risk and placed his leadership and principles on the line to say, "This is what I believe in and this is what I'm willing to fight for?" Obviously, the Constitution doesn't do it for him, nor does the idea of "more and better Democrats."

When other candidates tack left or right between the primary and election day, it's a form of Kabuki; we all know what they really stand for. They've left legislative paper trails that show us. We knew who George Bush was. No one with a brain bought that Compassionate Conservative horseshit. We know who John McCain is and have a good idea of how he will govern--and it ain't pretty.

Obama has a short paper trail--most of it self-penned in the form of two autobiographies. He has a single anti-war vote, which, yes, took courage to cast, even for a junior senator. But is that enough to tell us that he is more than "not McCain?" Is that enough to grant him the liberty to turn his back on progressive ideas and candidates? Are we comfortable enough to know that when it comes to the big things, he will fall on our side of the fence, as he has not done on FISA, as he has not done when it comes to supporting--or at least not undermining--progressive challengers to conservative Blue Dog Democrats?

Obama's whole strategy seemed based on generating enough progressive enthusiasm to redraw the electoral map--bringing new, young and minority voters into the booths. These groups went wild for St. Obama of the Primaries. They helped him raise unprecedented sums of money.

I wonder if these new voters will be sufficiently energized by Village Barack of the General come election day? If he's hunting for his Sister Souljah moment, he'd better turn around and hunt for its reverse--a reintroduction to his base.

Comments

[ibsteve2u]

I think my bottom line is the biggest internal threat to America is the neocons, PNAC, and the like.

They need watched - and this FISA law provides the power to watch them.

[Barbyrah]

Are you kidding??

[walk0nwalls]

Fascism here we come.

[AlisonChaynz]

By the time Obama is sworn in as president, it wouldn't surprise me if he's totally on-board with starting a war with Iran. We're still months away from the election and this guy is already a huge disappointment. Having taught Constitutional law, Obama should have been THE president to protect the Bill of Rights (what a fool I was to think that.)

Ugh.

[rernst]

I feel the same. Sucking up to AIPAC as he did there is no doubt in my mind that he will follow suit in a looming Israeli attack on Iran. I was one of the Obamaniacs that believed in this guy, this whole message of hope. Now his staffers rpeated exclusion of Muslims, his carbon-emission and world-poverty boosting insane ethanol-energy policy, his opposition to the Supreme court in the quiet efforts to have the U.S. follow suit with literally all western countries in the pursuit of the abolition of the death penalty, his unfettered support for warrantless wiretapping (no matter how he wants to spin it), his abolition of the 'no-precondition talks stance - man, this is not the guy I voted for.

We MoveOn'ers, the ones that handed him the victory in the primaries through canvassing, phone banking, money and sheer endless enthusiasm have been thrown under the bus.

Sure, we will all still vote for him in the hopes that he will be supplanted in 2012 by a real liberal like Russ Feingold (why on earth did he not run?) given the choice of McCain but he certainly has lost moral authority for the moment and many of us have canceled their recurring contributions to his campaign.

Quick to turn for 'Change we can believe in' into 'Politics as usual'.

We've been had.

[Inaru]

The paper trail on Barack:
Anti-racial profiling laws
Toughest police interrogation-video-taping laws in the nation in IL
Campaign finance reform in IL and US senates
Six-times the childcare subsidies for Welfare Reform so single moms wouldn't end up living in cars with their kids and could get work credentials, and work
Highest grades on the environment and choice
Tax cuts and health care for working poor (about a quarter million families in IL)

And on policies he's committed to:
Ties minimum wage to inflation
No taxes on or privatizing social security
Taxing corporations/the rich at least as much as the rest of us
Ties trade pacts to labor and environmental protection
Makes union membership possible with 51% secret ballot
Will make the same quality healthcare available to everyone as senators have, subsidized if needed
A quality education for everyone regardless of income/where we live
Quadruples peace/teaching/health service corps, domestic and foreign

Barack's the only hope for les miserables. If we can't figure out who the enemy is, no wonder we lose. As they say, we get the government we deserve, and maybe everyone has to be utterly destitute, crippled, profiled and targeted and miserable before we get a clue.

I gotta go hustle up volunteers and voters, because circular shooting games aren't getting us anywhere. I'm grateful I can organize right now from home, or this crying-when-we-won stuff would depress me. Exactly why don't you trust this man?

[DuPageDem]

Uh, what about standing up for the Constitution? Or that doesn't matter to you, and shouldn't matter to the rest of the party?

[Ojore]

Well, then you have a choice to make - Obama, or McCain. Really, it's that simple. What, are you not going to vote for the guy because of this? Because if you're not, fine. But if you're still going to vote for him, the fucking whining needs end here. Everyone's made their point, and Obama's sticking to his position. We need to learn to live with it.

He is standing up for the Constitution, you dolt. As it stands, NO ONE is keeping track of the abuses going on, and this FISA compromise, albeit flawed, helps us do just that. It brings it back to Constitutionality.

This is not the Vermont Teddy Candidate Company, where you get your tailor-made candidate in 24 hours. I understand you're disappointed over this issue, but people are going on and on like Obama just took a dump on the Constitution. Anything but.

[PuritanDescendant]

Regardless of what Obama does on FISA, it's time for his supporters to sit back and reassess things.

If you're going to run as a post-partisan comprimiser and uniter, then you have to make some concessions. I hate the FISA bill; immunity is bad, real bad. But on the list of important issues, this one has got be down far. I'm against immunity because i want the dirt on Bush and his evil henchman domestic spies. But if Obama gets elected, we may get that dirt yet. As long as there is a good investigation, I'm somewhat satisfied. The puntitive civil penalty for the telecoms is minor.

Folks need to realize that politics is synomymous with compromise. You can't win them all. If you try to, you end up like Bush. Stripping immunity is worth a try, but don't get hung up on it. It pales next to issues like healthcare and getting out of Iraq. If Obama has to give up some liberal stances in order to win out on the larger ones, that's reality.

[elion10]

Political Compromise is one thing.. but last I checked .. to be President of the United States, you must take an oath to protect and defend the constitution.. Maybe that is just a quaint custom.

Americans should care less about getting the "dirt" on Bush, and more about a electing a President who puts the Constitution above all..

Obama is a constitutional scholar, now we will see if he is an adherent .. or if he places political expedience above the constitution.

[zbig]

I just saw HBO's 'Recount' and it made me put in perspective what's at stake: these evil doers (Bush, Cheney, the Supreme Court 5) deserve to have Obama as President, just so there'll be someone to piss them off.

[joececchini]

Um, didn't Senator Obama announce this weekend that he will fight to have the Telecom Immunity clause stripped from this bill? Isn't that the key odious element? I believe that your comments were written in haste. He still has time to do the right thing.

[BlaineKinsey]

Nice try, joececchini, but both you and Barack Obama know that Senator Obama is not going to make any serious effort to remove telecom immunity from the FISA Bill which passed the House of non-Representatives because that would force the FISA legislation to go to a House-Senate conference committee and because telecom immunity is the reason that almost 100 percent of Republicans in the House of non-Representatives voted for this bill. Senator Obama is merely pandering by saying that he is going to try to have telecom immunity removed from this FISA bill. Although I have invested a lot of time lobbying against FISA revisions which degrade the Constitution, I will still vote for Senator Obama because the alternative is more objectionable. However, based on his political stances on issues such as trade legislation and healthcare reform and FISA, Senator Obama has demonstrated that he is just another politician.

[Ojore]

Way to echo those Republican talking points! That really helps!

Folks need to start keeping diaries and keep stuff like this out of public discourse. Comments like this only weaken our cause to elect the guy. And right now, THAT is what matters most.