A perfect opportunity for Obama and Clinton to show leadership.

Obama and Clinton’s State of Surveillance

President Bush is now daring Congress to defy his demand for more unchecked power to spy on Americans without warrants, vowing to veto temporary surveillance legislation and politicize his last State of the Union address for an attack on Democrats. Last week, Democratic leaders were considering a bill to grant a one-month extension of the administration’s spying powers, a “compromise” tilted in Bush’s favor, but Republican tactics have finally tried the patience of Majority Leader Harry Reid. He had been managing floor votes to advance the Republican bill and squash opposition from the majority of Democrats within his caucus, but that may change this week.

“The White House threat to veto a short extension of the Protect America Act is shamefully irresponsible,” says Reid, who also derided Bush’s new threat as simply “posturing” for the State of the Union. Reid added that if any terror-related problems were caused by legislative delays, “the blame will clearly and unequivocally fall where it belongs: on President Bush and his allies in Congress.”

[...]Even with Reid pulling strings for Bush, Senate Democrats only fell four votes short of keeping the better bill alive. And they were missing two votes from their colleagues on the campaign trail, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. (Emphasis mine)

FireDogLake is holding a Sunday Fax-a-thon, with telephone numbers to contact senators. Democracy for America is planning a full page ad in Monday’s Times to press Obama and Clinton to step up to the plate.

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