I've been wrestling with Obama's decision to side with the compromise/capitulation side of the FISA debate.
It's not just that I disagree with it personally (see Something the Dog Said's diary, which states better than I could why I don't expect Obama to march in lockstep with every position I hold) it's that I don't understand the politics of it, from a purely pragmatic perspective.
Actually, scratch that. I think I understand it all too well. I just don't like the implications.
More below.
One of the main justifications Hoyer gave for cutting a deal that included telco amnesty was that it would provide "cover" for Dem Congresscritters in tough races and tough districts, that it would help shield them from accusations of being "soft on terror".
Applied to FISA that 'logic' answers the age-old question of how many holes it takes to fill the Albert Hall. But as a general strategy it's something that arguably has had some merit... in the past.
In this election cycle, however, the old rules clearly do not apply. Democrats should not be seeking cover from Republican attacks; it's Republicans who should be (and are) seeking cover from Democratic attacks. The inability of Hoyer to recognize the new landscape and adapt to it is one of the most compelling reasons why he should get the boot not just from his position of leadership within the House but from the House itself. He's a dinosaur so used to bending over when the Pubs snap their fingers he can no longer stand up straight.
This diary isn't about Hoyer though. It isn't really about FISA either. It's about Barack Obama.
As StDS said in their diary, Obama has now solidified his base and is running towards the middle. It's to be expected. As part of that process, however, he's likely to need to do what Bill Clinton did all those years ago when he repudiated Sistah Souljah's caustic remarks about the LA riots: find a convenient target he can use to publicly "push" towards that middle rather than simply drift in that direction.
Given that there's no compelling political reason whatsoever to give in to the Pubs on telco amnesty, Obama's decision not to oppose the FISA compromise and instead declare that
the issue of the phone companies per se is not one that overrides the security interests of the American people.
can only be driven by that strategic choice to run towards the middle.
In short, he's setting up the netroots to be his Sistah Souljah. Let those crazy bloggers froth at the mouth over trivial Constitutional issues; he's worried about terrorism!
I also can't help but notice the timing here. Obama steps away from his internet base during the same week Hillary Clinton is setting him up on a blind date with her big money donors.
I hope the Obama campaign appreciates the danger here. The success of his campaign can be attributed a great deal not just to his message of change but his willingness to act in accord with that message. He called for a different kind of politics, and he actually ran a different kind of campaign. It resonated.
This compromise is the same old Washington politics though. If it ends up being a relatively rare occurrence Obama has little to worry about. If it becomes a pattern, he runs the very real risk of alienating the very people that gave his campaign its momentum, and of undermining the message of meaningful change that has gotten him where he is right now.
(The ironic thing here of course is that the corporate media, pathetically clueless as usual, focuses on the campaign finance issue as proof that Obama is "just another politician" when it does nothing of the sort, while ignoring the actual evidence which might support their narrative.)
Am I calling for people not to vote for him, or to stop donating or organizing? Hell no.
But at the same time as Obama rejects public financing and casts his lot with the small donors who carried him through the primaries, he does something to piss off the most enthusiastic part of those small donors, and dampen their enthusiasm.
I really hope Obama appreciates how fine a line it is he's walking with this strategy.
