STENY HOYER GETS SOME PATCH THROUGH CALLS-- WHILE RUSS FEINGOLD BATTLES TO SAVE THE CONSTITUTION

Rev. Lennox Yearwood, Jr. is probably best known as the President of the Hip Hop Caucus and for his tireless work on behalf of Gulf Coast renewal after Katrina. A member of the Iraq Veterans Against the War and an officer in the U.S. Air Force Reserve, he happens to be a resident of Steny Hoyer's Maryland district. As part of the Blue America campaign to hold Hoyer-- "the best friend money can buy," as one anonymous congressman told us-- accountable for conspiring with Bush against the will of the majority of the Democratic caucus and against the interests of the American people, we asked Rev. Yearwood to give us a hand with a phone message we could send to all of Hoyer's constituents. He hit the nail on the head:



Please consider joining the 5,500 people who have helped us raise almost over $320,000 to help hold accountable Hoyer and other members of Congress who think taking bribes campaign contributions from special interests, trumps the well-being of their constituents. And, yes, the thermometer will move if you put some money in the jar.



And speaking about the deprecations Hoyer has caused with his FISA treachery, after hearing vows all day from Dodd and Wyden and Feingold (and maybe even Obama... who knows what he said; he sounds like as much a straight talker as John McCain) to filibuster Hoyer's monstrosity, Harry Reid, who claimed, perhaps ingenuously, that he opposes the bill (he really does... I think), has now put off Senate consideration-- and, unless Obama demonstrates some real leadership with schmeggegies like Ben Nelson, Claire McCaskill, Max Baucus, Barbara Mikulski, passage-- of the horrid legislation. It's just a brief respite. Remember, the telecoms have paid very powerful men like Bush, McCain, Rockefeller, Hoyer, Barrow, Emanuel and Boehner millions and millions of dollars this year alone to make sure their executives don't have to face judges and juries, like ordinary Americans, for the crimes they may have committed. Take a look at which a-holes voted for the bill on February 12, when Rockefeller and Pat Roberts first got it passed. Let's see if Obama has any leadership abilities or if he's just the same old same old that all the phony Inside the Beltway creeps seem to be.

I think it will take calls from his own constituents to get Hoyer to pay attention to what America needs instead of to what his campaign contributors are demanding. It would be really grand if he listened to a fellow Democratic legislator, Russ Feingold, one-- unlike Hoyer-- who doesn't take special interests money from corporations and then vote for what those corporations want. Although Senator Feingold's whole speech is available-- with a video-- on his website, I've just selected a few bits and pieces I thought Steny should read and think about.

This legislation has been billed as a compromise between Republicans and Democrats.  We are asked to support it because it is a supposedly reasonable accommodation of opposing views.  Let me respond as clearly as possible:  This bill is not a compromise.  It is a capitulation. 

This bill will effectively and unjustifiably grant immunity to companies that allegedly participated in an illegal wiretapping program – a program that more than 70 members of this body still know virtually nothing about.  And this bill will grant the Bush Administration – the same administration that developed and operated this illegal program for more than five years – expansive new authorities to spy on Americans' international communications.  

If you don't believe me, here is what Senator Bond had to say about the bill:  "I think the White House got a better deal than even they had hoped to get."  And House Minority Whip Roy Blunt said this:  "The lawsuits will be dismissed." 

There is simply no question that Democrats who had previously stood strong against immunity and in support of civil liberties were on the losing end of this backroom deal.

That is Steny Hoyer's backroom deal, one he was richly paid to make. He should resign as Majority Leader since he does not have the confidence of a majority of even cowed House Democrats who refused to follow him across the aisle. The only way he was able to deliver for Bush and for his corporate paymasters was by voting with the GOP. Senator Feingold says that the retroactive immunity that the telecoms paid Hoyer and the Blue Dogs to deliver to them "is a key reason for my opposition to this legislation and for that of so many of my colleagues and so many Americans. No one should be fooled about the effect of this bill. Under its terms, the companies that allegedly participated in the illegal wiretapping program will walk away from these lawsuits with immunity. There is simply no question about it, and anyone who says that this bill preserves a meaningful role for the courts to play in deciding these cases is wrong."

But I'm concerned that the focus on immunity has diverted attention away from the other very important issues at stake in this legislation. In the long run, I don't believe this will be remembered as the 'immunity' bill. This legislation is going to be remembered as the legislation in which Congress granted the executive branch the power to sweep up all of our international communications with very few controls or oversight.

Let me reiterate something I've said before, no Democrat who has accepted "contributions" from the telecoms and who votes for this bill will ever be endorsed or supported by Blue America. The Constitution is far more important than campaign contributions. Matt Stoller has a must-read at Open Left today that looks further into the Democratic Party money-laundering operation, which is not unlike the one that was designed by Tom DeLay, and which perpetuates the power inside the caucus for sleazebags like Hoyer and Emanuel and helps create a situation where the worst of teh national Democrats-- the Blue Dogs-- can get control of the party's agenda.