Recently I wrote a letter to Senator Kohl critical of his decision to vote for the condemnation of an ad in a newspaper--MoveOn's BetrayUs ad.  His response agreed with my (nonexistent) condemnation of the ad. Since what I actually wrote about was my concern that he had caved in to right-wing talking points in making the vote critical of the ad, and that this was a waste of senatorial time I have to conclude that someone isn't listening to his constituents.

OK, I find this a little disturbing. There was a diary on the Rec List for most of the day concerning another Dem Capitulation in their denunciation of the fact-based MoveOn Betray Us ad. It had to do with funding and message control. The diary was well referenced IMHO. Lots of links, it seemed to me the general standard that larger claims be backed with more referenced evidence. Everything I will say about it will have to be from memory, as it was yanked from the TOP of the Rec List.

Update: the diarist notimportant, deleted the diary due to vitriolic discourse in the comments. Damn sad. Please Rec this diary so we can continue the discussion here, if anyone is interested.

Also, does anyone recall why people/which people got upset over a diary?

I want to tell a story about how 22 weak-kneed and spineless Democratic U.S. Senators just made my life and active participation in the political process just a little bit more difficult.  It took me a week to figure out why I was so angry, but I just figured it out. Follow me beneath the fold to understand my full rage....

You may not have caught it yesterday but Barbara Boxer introduced an amendment to the DOD appropriation bill.  It was voted down in the Senate (although it got 51 votes).

Withdrawn:
By 51 yeas and 46 nays (Vote No. 343), Boxer Amendment No. 2947 (to Amendment No. 2011), to reaffirm strong support for all the men and women of the United States Armed Forces and to strongly condemn attacks on the honor, integrity, and patriotism of any individual who is serving or has served honorably in the United States Armed Forces, by any person or organization. (A unanimous-consent agreement was reached providing that the amendment, having failed to achieve 60 affirmative votes, be withdrawn).

Note that the Republicans voted against support for our troops.

Instead they passed an amendment to chastise MoveOn.Org.   So much for the state of the Senate.

22 Democrats caved into the Bush administration yesterday and voted for the Cornyn Amendment. First of all, John Cornyn is in no position to lecture us about civility; he is the same senator who empathised with the lynch mobs over judges. Next, it is unconscionable that the Democrats who were elected to represent us could forget that and not recognize the hypocrisy that is involved in his amendment.

By introducing that censure amendment of MoveOn.org's ad yesterday afternoon, that's exactly what Senator Cornyn did.

Instead of focusing on the really big stuff going on in the legislation currently before the Senate, Senator Cornyn, in a cheap political stunt, sought to make inroads into one of the very foundations this country was built upon--The First Amendment:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

And he broke the rules (ed update: not laws) doing it.

I went to the General Clark book signing downtown only to hear him announce that the Cornyn amendment (read challenge to the 1st Amendment IMHO) passed with a dramatic margin whilst the Webb Amendment and Habeas Corpus hang in a Filibuster Limbo.

Even as I sat there half listening to him read from his book about a battle in Vietnam, one in which he was seriously wounded, it took me a while to actually digest what'd happened with regards to the vote.