It is pretty outrageous but not really surprising. Moderate Republicans have once again shown there is no such thing as a "moderate" when it comes to loyalty to the Bush administration, and they have voted not to hold investigative hearings on the unconsitutional eavesdropping programs being run by this administration.
Glenn Greenwald has had excellent coverage of this story from start to finish, and along with the bloggers at
firedoglake and
Vichy Democrats, has been actively working to bring grass roots pressure on the relevant Senators.
To me, the fact that this vote was even close speaks to the growing power and influence of the blogosphere, especially considering the
complete lack of attention this story has gotten in the mainstream media, who have been more interested in Bush playing cricket in India instead of Bill Frist trying to change the rules of the Senate to turn the Senate Intelligence Committee into just another rubber stamp for the administration. As Thersites says:
And remember: win, lose or draw, we've done something over the past few days that has never, ever been done before: directed national attention, and thousands of constituent communications, at a relatively "minor" and unpublicized event, a simple closed-door committee meeting. And we haven't even begun to fight...
It's not over. We have to keep up the pressure. So while you're thanking those who led the activism on our side, be sure to keep following this story and watch for more calls to action from them. We need to break the scandal cycle that Peter Daou has so eloquently written about (don't miss the great follow-up here) and make sure the media gives this the coverage it deserves:
To illustrate the power of the media to shape public opinion, simply imagine what would happen if the cable nets and the print media and the elite punditocracy treated the warrantless spying scandal with the same round-the-clock intensity as the Swift-boating of Kerry or the Natalee Holloway disappearance. Suppose Lewinsky-style headlines blared about impeachment and presidential law-breaking. Suppose the question of the day on every cable net was, "Should Bush be impeached for violating the Constitution?" The media can create a crisis -- and can squelch one. The media can deliver narratives, they can frame events, they can shape the way Americans see the political landscape. A disproportionate amount of power is wielded by a handful of opinion-shapers, and when these individuals tell America a story that favors the right and marginalizes the left, the remedies are few.
The way to act on this right now is to contact your Senator and tell him or her just how important it is to you that this investigation is carried out fully and fairly. I think it would also help to write letters to the editor of your local paper, asking where is the coverage of this, and we could even be contacting networks to ask for more coverage. We have fought our adversaries abroad and at home for over 200 years while maintaining our respect for the Constitution, which is part of what makes the battles worth fighting. Now is not the time to trash the very laws and principles that make our country great.