Can House Dems Stand Up To Bush ?

Last week, the Democrats in the Senate knuckled under to Bush again. Instead of standing up for the privacy rights of American citizens, they gave in to pressure from Bush and passed the unconstitutional Protect America Act.

This act, which would end soon if not extended by Congress, allows the Executive branch to snoop on anyone it wants to without needing a court-issued search warrant. It also would grant immunity to any telecommunications company that cooperated in this surveillance.

I am still shocked by the Senate Democrats who helped to pass this bill. Once again they have shown they are too weak and timid to stand up to the most unpopular president in our history. If they can't stand up to Bush, how are we to believe they will ever have the backbone to fight for citizen's rights.

Evidently, they still haven't figured out that a main reason voters have shunned them in the past is because they perceive them to be weak. This latest action has done nothing to change that perception. Personally, I think this is a leadership problem.

Senator Reid has been a continuing disappointment in his leadership of the Senate Democrats. Under his leadership, the Democrats have been unable to stand up to Bush on any issue. He talks tough, and then gives in every time. When the new Senate convenes after the next election, it is time to elect new leadership for the Democrats -- someone who is not afraid to stand up to the Republicans and fight for the constitutional rights of all Americans.

Fortunately, the House Democrats are made of a little sterner stuff (I hope). The version of the Protect America Act that they passed did not contain the immunity provision for telecommunications companies, although frankly, they shouldn't have passed any version of this ridiculous bill.

Today, they rejected Bush's plea to vote on and pass the Senate version of the bill. Speaker Pelosi said they needed time to debate it. Instead, they passed contempt citations for two members of the Bush administration (one current and one former member). Since Bush had said he will order the Justice Department to not honor the citations, they even authorized the Judiciary Committee to take the matter to court for enforcement.

At least for one day, they have shown they can stand up to the Bush administration. Now they need to follow through and refuse to re-authorize the unconstitutional Protect America Act. There is no need to authorize such broad eavesdropping powers. If the FBI or CIA needs to listen in on calls and messages, let them get a search warrant as our Founding Fathers intended when they wrote the Constitution.

With a national election coming up, these House Democrats need to show Americans they are not the cowardly weaklings their Senate brethren have turned out to be. Americans will not vote for those too weak to defend their beliefs. That's one reason they voted Republican in the past few years. The Republican's beliefs are faulty, but they're not afraid to defend them.

Democrats have a golden opportunity in the upcoming election, but they need to show they deserve to be returned to power. Americans will not vote for cowards.