Here's the question I want to pose to the rest of you, something I'm not sure of. If this is a revised version of the old bill that's going to be put through the Senate, will it have to go back to the House for reconsideration? If so, I think I know what we have to do.
What we have to do is make sure that this version doesn't pass the house, at least not without substantial amendment to the offending changes. If the Republicans want to play hardball and cater to those who catered to their President's unconstitutional behavior in the Senate, we can play hardball where we have the decisive advantage.
In the meantime, we need to look into primary alternatives. This is pathetic. It's nice that we have the majority, but we need some candidates who don't flinch in the face of bullshit threats of looking soft on terrorism.
And furthermore in the meantime, we need to call our Senators up and e-mail them to see whether we can get this crap scuttled in the Senate.
As a matter of fact (forgive my stream of consciousness here), all we would need would be for one Democratic Senator to do exactly what that Republican senator did! God knows we could come up with something political to do that, and only one Democrat has to do that.
Let's not let a bunch of pansies in Washington make us feel powerless. We're the reason they have the majority at all. If they don't want it that badly, there are always more committed, less intimidated people we can elect.