More than a month has passed, actually now it has been two. In the third week of June, I heard the song in my head for the first time. With each day that passes the volume increases. Friends, family, and familiars were privy to what has been a curiosity for me. Still haunted by what I know needs to be shared farther and wider, today I tell you my tale. The story begins with two Florida Democrats. Each aspires to fill the one open United States Senate seat. The date; June 22, 2010. I was amongst those invited to attend the initial Meek Greene debate.. The place? The Palm Beach Post headquarters. The time? Midday. The reality realized and the reason my mind marinated in the melody titled It's About Time. Today, Democrats, Progressives are not as they were.
With the Democratic Senate seemingly hell-bent on granting retroactive immunity to telcos that helped Bushco spy on Americans without a warrant, Chris Dodd stepped up to try and bring a halt to the madness by announcing a hold on the bill after it passed a committee vote. Then, Thursday afternoon, at Firedoglake, Jane wrote:
Well this is quite shocking:
Tim Starks of Congressional Quarterly reports that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) plans to bring the Senate's surveillance bill up for floor debate in mid-November. That's despite the hold that Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT) plans to place on the measure - something first reported by Election Central's Greg Sargent.
I'm a bit confused here. This just doesn't happen. So I chatted with someone I know with extensive Hill experience, who said:
"I can't think of one time when Harry Reid went around his own. It's just not normal for a leader to do that to his own side. Sometimes you'll go around Republicans, sometimes they'll use holds to be "spoilers," but that happens to the other guy. You just don't do it to one of your own."
Consider what happened when Chris Dodd introduced the Emmet Till cold case bill, which called for more money for unsolved civil rights crimes. Tom Coburn put a hold on the bill - and Reid just let it go. The bill died.
Strange set of priorities you've got there, Senator Reid.
I hope Dodd fights this one like hell.
Outrageous as this is, it's a perfect illustration of a point I didn't quite make as emphatically as I had hoped to with a diary series [links below] I did two weekends ago: that Democrats are as bad on political process as Republicans are on policy in cognitively similar ways. And so I return to that task on the flip.
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