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Conservative Democrats Prepare To Cave On FISA - We Won't Let Them |
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As alluded to earlier this week, the next battle for progressives won't be against Republicans, but against members of our own party:
…we've elected some shockingly conservative Democrats in recent years. Their constituency is strong enough to make the Blue Dog Coalition a powerful force in the House, to make fighting telecom companies and FISA "reforms" much harder than it should be, and to continue to pass funding for the war again and again, over the objections of most Americans. Come 2008, with multiple pickups in the House and Senate, we'll have won the battle, but the war is just starting.
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Primary challenges are a must. Grassroots pressure against conservative Democrats is crucial. We must raise the cost of being conservative, no matter the party. Only then will we actually pass a progressive agenda, and only then will we get a chance to look at other important but disregarded issues like prison reform, ending the drug war, or changing our imperialist foreign policy.
People are already doing this important work. Blue America is going up with television, radio, billboard, and print ads against Chris Carney, the Pennsylvania Blue Dog Democrat:
Carney is a so-called "Blue Dog" Democrat who continuously sides with the Bush administration and supports its most radical policies. In addition to his leading role in demanding warrantless eavesdropping and telecom amnesty, he has repeatedly voted against timetables to end the war in Iraq. He is a close associate of Douglas Feith, with whom he worked on pre-war "intelligence" at the Rumsfeld Pentagon, and Carney still claims that "there were links between Iraq and Al Qaeda." Unsurprisingly, then, Carney has spoken out against Congressional investigations into those responsible for pre-war intelligence "failures" (which would include himself and Feith), calling such investigations a "major distraction." Among his most enthusiastic supporters in 2006 was Richard Perle.
I'm proud to report that The Seminal had a hand in designing some of these ads!
It is crucial that Blue Dogs are held accountable. I'm ok with having a broad view of what being a Democrat means, but there are some things that are non-negotiable. You have to stand for the Constitution. You have to stand for the people. You can't take $27,900 from telecom companies that illegally spied on Americans and then vote to grant them full amnesty, cutting off the one avenue we have to find out the details of Bush's spying program. If amnesty is granted, we will never know what Bush did, who authorized it, or how extensive the spying was.
Chris Carney took that money and worked for retroactive immunity, at that makes him worse than a simple conservative Democrat - he is knowingly abetting the phone companies, helping them break the law and spit on the Constitution. It's un-American.
Here is the television ad Blue America is running against Carney:
And here's the print advertisement (click for the bigger version):
We must hold our elected officials accountable for what they do in office. We must tell them loudly and clearly that being a Democrat means not taking telecom bribes.
Update (Josh): If you're ready to start turning conservative Democrats into real progressives - and if you'd like to help keep these ads on the air and in print - donate to Blue America's special FISA Accountability Fund.
Not to say that he is in the right by an stretch of the imagination, but it's more than misrepresenting the Democratic Party that is shameful, it's taking from the people he promised to represent..the citizen's of the United States of America.
Tust me jason..those shits will promise you every thing ..come voteing time they wont cast theres cause there out with a bad case of lobbyest flu.