Stop Being Characters in Their Story

I've done 107 hours in the office so far this week -- it can be done, especially if you start the week with a 43 hour meal and sleep free marathon.  This comes at the end of an 18 month project where 80 hour weeks have been common.  So if the folks camped out in Congress are tired after working a longer than normal session, they have my sympathy.  What they don't have is a pass to sign anything that will get them out of town.

They certainly can't blame exhaustion for this.

Under pressure from President Bush, House Democrats on Saturday grudgingly prepared to move ahead with approving changes in a terrorist surveillance program despite serious reservations about the scope of the measure.

With time running out before a scheduled monthlong break and the Senate already in recess, House Democrats confronted the choice of accepting the administration’s bill or letting it die. If it died, that would leave Democratic lawmakers, who have long been anxious about appearing weak on national security issues, facing an August fending off charges from Mr. Bush and Republicans that they left Americans exposed to terror threats.

If time is running out on the session, then let it run out.  There's no deadline for making the right decision, and no doubt that handing additional powers over to Bush and Gonzales is the wrong decision.

Why would Democrats agree to something they certainly know is a mistake?

There was no indication that lawmakers were responding to new intelligence warnings. Rather, Democrats were responding to administration pleas that a recent secret court ruling had created a legal obstacle in monitoring foreign communications relayed over the Internet. They also appeared worried about the political repercussions of being perceived as interfering with intelligence gathering. But the disputes were significant enough that they were likely to resurface before the end of the year.

Here's a question for Congress: what do you think you're buying?  

Sure, at the moment Republicans are accusing Nancy Pelosi of stalling, and CNN is all too happy to quote unnamed officials saying that FISA -- FISA that's been bent and twisted at every whim of the administration -- is still not beaten down so much as top be as worthless as they want.

If you should pony up our rights -- our rights -- as the price of buying the favor of a man at 26% in the polls, what do you think you're going to get for that price?  Do you really expect the Republicans to shut up about this issue?  Do you expect Fox News to run a streamer saying "Democrats fight terrorists!" and Bill O'Reilly to give you a round of applause?

You're not going to get that.  If you fold, Fox News is going to call you weak, and your Republican colleagues are going to go home and brag about how they rolled you.  Oh, and they're still going to shout to the heavens that terrorists would be running down every main street in America, if they hadn't made the Democrats knuckle under.

Stop worrying about what Republicans are going to say.  Stop worrying about what Rush, and Bill, and Sean, and the Fox morning chorus is going to say.  Stop being side characters in the epic tragedy that Bush is enacting on our nation and world.

Write your own story.  Stop trying to apply political calculus to what should be the easiest decision that's come before the House this year.

And if you're tired, go home.  That's what I'm about to do.

UPDATE: It's over.  It passed.  Champagne at the White House tonight.