Tone Deafness
Joe Klein, one of the nutroots all-time favorite media chew toys, continues to try to warn Democrats that they are following the charge to the left at their own electoral peril. (Which is why he is the favorite chew toy.) His latest column warns that the Democrats are sending bad signals to the voters on two important issues: Iraq and the FISA/wiretapping issue.
….. Senator Carl Levin's proposal for a gradual troop withdrawal, starting now, is the right policy. Various Bush Administration officials — though none in the White House — have told me that a troop withdrawal is the best leverage we have for shoving the Iraqis into a national-reconciliation deal. But Levin made troop withdrawal a condition for continued funding of the war, which is a kamikaze mission. The bill couldn't muster the votes necessary to overcome a filibuster, much less the inevitable Bush veto. Indeed, with Iraq calmer for the moment, Democrats probably have fewer votes for ending the war than they did last spring. And their continued indulgence in these futile, symbolic gestures conveys a sense of weakness and incompetence. Whatever political value these votes once had — getting Republicans on the record in favor of continuing the war — has long since dissipated and may actually work against the Democrats if the progress in Iraq continues.
The Democratic strategy on the FISA legislation in the House is equally foolish. There is broad, bipartisan agreement on how to legalize the surveillance of phone calls and emails of foreign intelligence targets. The basic principle is this: if a suspicious pattern of calls from a terrorist suspect to a U.S. citizen is found, a FISA court warrant is necessary to monitor those communications. But to safeguard against civil-liberty abuses, all records of clearly nontargeted Americans who receive emails or phone calls from foreign suspects would be, in effect, erased. Unfortunately, Speaker Nancy Pelosi quashed the House Intelligence Committee's bipartisan effort and supported a Democratic bill that — Limbaugh is salivating — would require the surveillance of every foreign-terrorist target's calls to be approved by the FISA court, an institution founded to protect the rights of U.S. citizens only. In the lethal shorthand of political advertising, it would give terrorists the same legal protections as Americans. That is well beyond stupid.
Well, yeah. It is. It will be a club used with great effect in the upcoming elections. Take that to the bank. Klein is already being attacked by the usual suspects and has responded on his Swampland blog.
4. This is all a partisan waste of time, fodder for lawyers and civil liberties extremists. There is broad bipartisan agreement on the following principles:
–It is necessary to monitor the communications of foreign terrorist suspects.
–It is necessary to get a FISA warrant to monitor the communications of any U.S. citizen or resident alien who engages in suspicious exchanges with a foreign terrorist target.
–It is necessary to protect the identities of innocent U.S. citizens or resident aliens who are swept up in the data-mining of foreign terrorists' communications.You may disagree with those principles. I don't. Most members of Congress don't. Most people, I dare say, wouldn't if they were interested enough to listen to the arguments. It is essential to pass a bill that combines legitimate national security and civil liberties concerns–but that isn't happening because of blind, stupid partisan politics.
Klein is vilified by the left because he simply will not swear fealty to their agenda. Therefore, he is treated as an apostate. But he is talking sense here. Thankfully, the nutroots will do their level best to shout him down and force their direction on the Democrats. Thereby providing Republicans with ample clubs with which to tenderize their opponents. Welcome to this week's episode, Joe:
By Americaneocon, Wednesday, 21 November , 2007 @ 9:17 pm
I posted on Klein too today. He almost brought himself to truly dis the Dems on national security, but of course he had to drop the ball. He’s no “neo”.
Actually, I came over to wish you a Happy Thanksgiving!
I’m thankful for many things, especially my God-given gifts to succeed to the best of my ability. This great country of ours allows that to happen.
I’m also happy and thankful for our troops, who help preserve our freedoms.
Have a relaxing day tomorrow.