BernieHund: The Political Watchdog

It’s beginning to look a lot like the House is going to crawl in the hole behind the Senate.  According to a MSNBCreport Representative Sylvestre Reyes, Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee (a misnomer), expects a compromise on the FISA bill by the end of the week.  Simply put, Reyes and the House seem to be virtually agreeable to what the President wants… in totality.

Reyes, D-Texas, said he was open to that possibility after receiving documents from the Bush administration and speaking to the companies about the industry’s role in the government spy program.

“We are talking to the representatives from the communications companies because if we’re going to give them blanket immunity, we want to know and we want to understand what it is that we’re giving immunity for,” he said. “I have an open mind about that.”

Regarding a compromise deal, Reyes said: “We think we’re very close, probably within the next week we’ll be able to hopefully bring it to a vote.”

Republican Representative Roy Blount of Missouri said he wasn’t quite as optimistic and it’s all the fault of those few damned stubborn Democrats who may put up a final fight… well, it probably won’t be much of a fight, but they want to make it look good before they give in.

I am committed to the idea that we have to work this out,” said Blunt, R-Mo. “It’s easy to solve this problem if the Democrats decide they want to solve it. The Senate proved it was easy and enough Democrats in the House believe it’s easy that it’s just up to the leaders to do this.”

I guess that pretty much sums it up.  “The Senate proved it was easy.”  Yeah, they are easy.  Pardon the comparison but I grew up on a farm in the South and we kept roosters and chickens in a big old pen.  Talk about easy!  The rooster would jump up on the back of the hen, nail her to the ground, and when she got up she would run like hell all through the fenced yard, squawking her head off.  I was always told the chicken ran around like a crazy animal squawking and screaming just so the other chickens wouldn’t think she was easy.  Sounds more and more like the Democrats in the House to me.

From the Democrats point of view

House Democrats worried the legal protections would erode civil liberties protections and accused Bush of fear-mongering. A quirk in the temporary eavesdropping law adopted by Congress last August allows the government to initiate wiretaps for up to one year against a wide range of targets.

Well, yeah, once again.  Bush has been out fear-mongering but the only people he has scared are the chickens in the Senate and the House apparently.  I sure don’t hear people talking about how we ought to give away our rights or how the telecoms should go Scott free in the deal.  Instead, I hear people talking about why we need change… across the board, not just in the White House.  And, right now, the lack of backbone of the Democrats when they have the opportunity to stand up to the Bully and the Bully Pulpit is one of the main topics of political conversation. 

Of course, there are elections in November not only for the White House, but for quite a few of the Senators who have let us down and for the House.  We’re open to the idea of change.  Of course, we will be taking names and casting votes.  And, don’t think when we talk change we are only talking about the Dick and the Decider.