HILLARY TO FIGHT BUSH'S RETROACTIVE IMMUNITY-- WHAT ABOUT OBAMA?

Neither Clinton nor Obama has a stellar voting record. Both records are OK; neither is the record of a leader; both seem over-cautious and defensive-- like someone who knows they'll have to defend it when they runner for higher office one day. Compare their voting records to other senators by looking at the analysis from ProgressivePunch based on their lifetime votes. Hillary's is tied with Patrick Leahy at #17 and Obama comes in at #24.

Firedoglake has been doing yeoman's work in trying to get Hillary and Obama to take leadership positions on the FISA legislation that would prevent Bush and Cheney from giving retroactive immunity to themselves and to their criminal cronies in the telecommunications industry. Neither Obama nor Clinton (nor McCain) bothered showing up last week to participate in the preliminary votes. FDL just got word that Hillary will make it her business to be in the Senate so she can vote against Miss McConnell's cloture bill to shut down debate.

It will be interesting to see if Obama feels he needs to be campaigning for the Democratic nomination more than doing his job in the U.S. Senate. I doubt McCain will bother showing up. He has missed almost every important vote since he declared he was running for the worthless GOP nomination.


UPDATE; OBAMA'S KEEPIN' UP WITH THE JONESES CLINTONS

Within an hour of Jane posting that Hillary had promised to be there to vote against McConnell's obstructionist ploy, Obama's campaign confirmed that he will be there too. Right on! As I suggested the other day, Hillary and Obama should convince their more reactionary backers to get on board as well. Hillary could prove she's a leader by bringing in Evan Bayh, Daniel Inouye, Bill Nelson, Barbara Mikulski, and Mark Pryor, and Obama could do likewise with Tim Johnson, Claire McCaskill and Ben Nelson.