In response to Keith Olbermann's diary, Well You stumped Me, which says:
Thus, as I phrased it on the air tonight, obviously Obama kicked the left in the teeth by supporting the bill. But anybody who got as hot about this as I did would prefer to see a President Obama prosecuting the telecoms criminally, instead of seeing a Senator Obama engender more "soft on terror" crap by casting a token vote in favor of civil litigation that isn't going to pass since so many other Democrats caved anyway.
But what if Obama doesn't win? What if a McCain administration becomes ascendent in January 2009?
I know this is a scary thought but do you actually believe that a McCain administration will pursue criminal charges against the Bush Administration and/or the telecoms? Why in the world should we put all of our eggs in such a precarious basket?
Civil litigation is the best chance for discovery. I'm not a lawyer but even I recognize this point.
Also, I must take exception to the idea that Obama "kicked the left in the teeth". I would say that Obama, the constitutional scholar, kicked the Constitution to the curb.
My apologies for such a meager diary, but I am in total disbelief at some of the uncritical reception that Olbermann's diary has received.
For further, much better reading, see Glenn Greenwald's response to Olbermann.
Update: to those who argue that Obama's support for the FISA bill will nullify attacks that he is soft on terror, here is evidence that, politically-speaking, Obama is playing with a double-edged sword:
In a press conference call this morning, John McCain surrogate Sam Brownback (R-KS) pointed at Barack Obama and essentially called him a spineless panderer -- and welcomed it, saying he expected Obama to cave in on Iraq withdrawal next. McCain senior policy adviser Randy Scheunemann, with tremendous self-assurance, described Obama's support for the FISA bill -- a bill McCain also supports! -- as an example of Obama's supreme commitment to his own "political fortunes" above all else. And then, to underscore how weak they now consider Obama to be, the McCain campaign then issued an "In Case You Missed It" press release with a transcript highlighting these statements.