"To be clear: Barack will support a filibuster of any bill that includes retroactive immunity for telecommunications companies."
This is a good step. The next step would be for Obama to start working his colleagues to do the same thing. But this is still a good step, and it only happened as a result of pressure from the base.
I have to say how frustrating it is to have to spend resources, in the form of strategizing, internal organizing, writing, phone calls to congressional offices, and other actions simply to get Democrats to do the right thing. A lot of Democrats complain that any resources spent targeting other Democrats is a waste of resources. You know what? In a way, they are right. Personally, I would much rather spend resources targeting Republicans and conservatives. However, the fault here lies just as much with Democrats who side with Republicans as it lies with anyone else. If some Democrats spend time targeting immigrants in order to improve their personal power, then yes, we have to spend resources targeting those Democrats. If some Democrat side with Republicans on major issues of our time, from FISA to Iraq to SChip to the Bankruptcy Bill to trade agreements to whatever, then yes, we have to spend resources targeting those Democrats.
In other words, it is a massive waste of resources when Democrats side with Republicans. It is a huge waste of resources when we use Democratic money to elect Democrats who side with Republicans, and equally a huge waste of resources to have to spend our time and energy fighting those Democrats who side with Republicans. This is the two-fold way in which Democrats who side with Republicans are a massive drain on our resources. But you know what? It would all go away if Democrats sided with Republicans less often. It is in this way that stopping capitulation might be a short term resource drain, but in the long term has the potential to greater increase our available resources. Siding with Republicans costs us money, and it takes pressure to raise a progressive Democrat. Investing resources in that pressure now is partly an attempt to make future expenditures in that area unnecessary.
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