My Congressman, Eliot Engel joined with a majority of Republicans and a minority of Democrats, mostly conservative Blue Dogs and members of the hawkish Democratic Leadership Council, in adopting the new FISA bill. Was this what your congressman did, too?
And are you wondering why. I may have an answer as to why did Engel vote the way he did. Was he motivated by lobbyist money?
Is this quid pro quo on my congressman's part?
Does this sound like your representative in Congress?
Let's check out what motivated Eliot Engel!
UPDATE: changed the title to give the diary a more universal appeal. This wasn't about just one congressman.
Big Brother has arrived and his name is George W. Bush. Congressman Eliot Engel, along with 292 members of Congress, is an enabler of this monster who occupies the White House.
In all, 105 Democrats voted for the bill and (with a dozen or so exceptions) this roster is almost identical to the DLC, the centrist nano-party in the Democratic Party that usually sides with the White House's failed foreign policy and national security policies.
As far as Engel is concerned, there is a little question of his campaign donations from the same telcos who lobbied so strongly to pass this legislation. For the 2006 election year cycle, Verizon Communications was the largest corporate contributor to Congressman Engel's campaign at $32,000 (final numbers are not in for the current cycle, but I expect the Congressman to get a big pay raise). But preliminary numbers are in for the Communications/Electronic PACs for this cycle; they represented the interests of the telcos as lobbyists. They have been among Engel's largest contributors in this cycle at more than $26,000 in donations.
I see a little quid pro quo problem with Congressman Engel and once again, I think he's got a lot of explaining to do to his constituency when he returns this summer during recess. More and more evidence is surfacing that beyond some bread-and-butter populist issues to appease some Democrats, this Congressman is nothing more than a Democrat in Name Only.
How about yours?