By voting for FISA "reforms" this week, Obama will help advance George Bush's best legislative year ever. That's an interesting way to punish Bush, whose government spied on Obama and the rest of America.
Up later this year: Drilling offshore and in Alaska. Bush will win that, and with gasoline prices sky high, Obama may even have to vote for both.
Also this year: War with Iran. Bush will get that through Congress too, and Obama will have to decide whether to fight against war.
Then: The election. Enough Democrats will hate our candidate and our party so much, that they'll stay home and give McCain the presidency.
Obama has no spare political capital. None. He's up against George Bush, the most successful politician of my lifetime. Bush is already planning to destroy Obama and congressional Democrats while ramming more horrors through Congress.
If Obama gives Bush a free pass for spying on Americans because Obama is fearful that a no vote and filibuster of the FISA "reform" will haunt him as a vote for terrorism, he'll let Bush make a huge withdrawal from his political capital account.
Here are the basic facts on FISA:
-- The telcos allegedly (or admittedly) spied on everyone in the United States without a warrant, and they've been sued for it. Looking at the evidence, one judge in an AT&T case called the spying a "dragnet" to explain how everyone was allegedly spied on. America's top spy has said the damages inflicted by this spying on Americans could tally billions of dollars.
-- Thus, the telcos allegedly spied on Obama and his Senate campaign, not to mention John Kerry's presidential campaign, Congress and the Supreme Court. They would all fall under the "everyone" category.
-- Friday, Obama said he'll vote for a bill that grants amnesty to the telcos that allegedly spied on him. He also said he'll try to remove the amnesty from the bill, but when he fails, he'll still vote for the bill. That bill will allow spying without warrant if a court refuses a search warrant while the request for a warrant is appealed to a higher court.
So let me humbly suggest a revision to Obama's position statement on FISA reform.
I suggest that Obama amend his position statement before this bill passes:
Mr. Bush wants me to forgive him for allegedly spying on me and my family, my Senate campaign and offices, for allegedly spying on every newsroom in America, for allegedly spying on John Kerry's presidential campaign, for allegedly spying on the Supreme Court. But these allegations of spying by the phone companies on behalf of this criminal president require full legal examination. So therefore, I will not only vote to remove amnesty from this bill, I will filibuster the bill itself even if amnesty is removed from it. Because we should not try to make illegal spying legal.
Obama MUST make every Senate issue this year a Last Stand. He has to aim directly at Bush, because Bush has a gun to Obama's head.
This is a multi-front war for Obama. He faces McCain, Bush and a very conservative Congress that really doesn't care whether he becomes president or not.
Bush has nothing to lose. He can promise lower gas prices in exchange for offshore drilling, and he'll never be held accountable for either driving the prices up in the first place by destabilizing our currency or for the environmental decimation of Florida and Alaska.
Obama has everything to lose, and that process has already begun with the whittling away of his political base.
This weekend, for the first time in my life, I do not want to vote in a presidential election.
Already, my stomach turns, my face sneers and epithets grumble through my clenched teeth whenever I see one of those pretty, artistic "Hope" or "Believe" bumper stickers. Seven days ago, I wanted one for Father's Day.
Watching Democratic party and our democratic government collapse last week as Barack Obama and Nancy Boyda abandoned the Constitution, I couldn't help but conclude this will be a very good year for George Bush and John McCain.
If Bush can leverage Obama to vote for telecom amnesty (after Obama votes against it, of course), then Bush can surely leverage Obama to vote for offshore oil drilling and ANWR oil exploration before Bush's term is done. And God only knows how Obama will vote on war with Iran, although it seems obvious that he won't put up much of a fight against it, regardless of how he votes.
The election is Obama's to lose, starting this week.