Tim Tagaris sent an email, and then posted about it at Open Left. He was with Dodd's campaign.
I was very proud of Chris Dodd's stance on this issue...fighting against giving retroactive immunity to the telecom companies who so freely shared our private information with the government. I hate to see this stuff going on with our Demcratic senators. Many of them have not shown themselves to be made of very brave stuff lately.
Senate Justice on FISAOrganizing online against retroactive immunity taught me a lot about the way the Senate works, it's norms and customs, and how fallout happens.
For example, I learned that the weapon of choice for those who wished to enable the passage of retroactive immunity was not to make a forceful case on its behalf ... but abusing and using parliamentary procedure. We saw staffers participate in disinformation campaigns about parliamentary procedure to keep bloggers confused and silent about the process (bloggers, the only ones really covering the debate). And we saw that retroactive immunity was only stalled because Senator Dodd objected to and then used all the parliamentary tactics at his disposal to prolong the debate to a point it would have threatened the Christmas recess.
And today, we learn that Senate justice for rocking the boat is meted out by anonymous aides on the pages of "Roll Call" (subscription)
Tim then quotes some of the Roll Call comments...I would love to see more but no subscription.
Democrats said the FISA fight - which could come in the first week or two of the new session - may be an early test of whether Dodd's presidential campaign has caused any significant strains in his relationships with colleagues
One senior Democratic aide said that while some Democrats could have been irked in the heat of the moment, most understand it is the nature of presidential campaigning for candidates to tackle hot-button issues and to rely heavily on veteran staff for day-to-day work in the Senate.
"I think it's too early to say" whether there are any hard feelings, the Democratic aide said. "But I think you could term it as a key few months for him" in terms of his reintegration into the Caucus. "It will be interesting to watch when he returns," the aide said.
What condescending comments and what loosely veiled...should I say threats....against a man who stood for something.
More from Tim Tagaris about the opposition to Dodd's stance on the FISA immunity issue.
During the campaign I saw a lot of talk about "Chris Dodd for Majority Leader." But while his leadership may have inspired that kind of talk, it's the very reason such a promotion would be a real long shot should he ever happen to seek the post again.
Many of his colleagues in the Democratic caucus do not like what he is doing, they don't want him to continue, and as evidenced by the article linked above, they are pressuring him to stop.
This, friends, is our caucus.
Alternet earlier covered the fact that Dodd's
"hold" on the bill was not respected while "holds" by GOP leaders were respected.
Worse still, Reid is completely disregarding the "hold" placed by Chris Dodd on any amnesty bill -- simply refusing to honor it, even as he respectfully honors literally scores of "holds" from GOP Senators such as Tom Coburn. And while Dodd is interrupting his campaigning to fly to Washington to lead the filibuster he vowed, Reid has ensured with scheduling manuevers that the filibuster will take place only over the weekend -- when all of the members are away raising money anyway and journalists aren't paying attention -- with the intent to try to force cloture once everyone returns on Monday.
I hope immunity will not be given retroactively. I doubt the Senate will fight much more on it. It does away with any chance of our knowing what they really did find out about us and what they did with it.
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