A few days ago Speaker Pelosi called a snap conference call for bloggers. I'm quite certain that almost everyone on the call wanted to talk with her about the FISA bill, particularly about warrantless wiretaps of American citizens and about retroactive immunity for Bush's cronies inside his regime and among his corporate supporters in the telecom industry. But Ms. Pelosi had brought us together to discuss the Paul Wellstone Mental Health and Addiction Equity Act, which the Democrats had managed to pass overwhelmingly with the help of 47 Republicans. I had just finished writing a post about it and I was prepared to ask the Speaker a question while everyone else waited to get to FISA.
(this leads somewhere, after the jump)
I asked her if she ever tries talking to the reactionary Democrats like Jim Marshall (D-GA) and Nick Lampson (D-TX) who consistently vote against basic Democratic values, siding with the GOP on substantive issues, from health care to Iraq and everything in between. (These two both voted against the mental health bill.) She refused to comment on Marshall, other than to say the leadership talks with these folks all the time. But she defended Lampson and others who go their own the Republican way over and over again. She said they're there for the Democrats when they're needed. They may be there to pass needed pork barrel legislation and they may be there for their corporate donors and for George W. Bush, but when the primary issues of the day come up they are not there, not for the leadership, not for Democratic principles, not for their constituents, and not for the United States of America. I think she was relieved to move on to FISA.
And that's what I want to bring up today. Over at Blue America, we're having a little vote and we want to ask as many activists as would like, to vote in our poll. Glenn Greenwald kicked off the action today at Salon and I urge you to read his brilliant explanation of why it is time to hold some of these Democrats accountable for their actions. We've asked our readers to vote to pick one of 6 Bush Dogs who signed a letter to Speaker Pelosi demanding that they be given the opportunity to go on record supporting retroactive immunity. The 6 are among the Democrats who vote most frequently with the GOP on substantive, contested matters: Chris Carney (PA), Zach Space (OH), Heath Shuler (NC), Brad Ellsworth (IN), Leonard Boswell (IA) and John Barrow (GA).
John Conyers (D-MI), Pat Leahy (D-VT), John Hall (D-NY) and John Heinrich (D-NM) all have something to say about this legislation as well, certainly different approaches than the Blue America one. Jane Hamsher at FDL and John Amato (who is celebrating his birthday and celebrating winning the #1 political blog of the year award yesterday) at Crooks & Liars have fuller explanations.
Again, vote here and if you want to donate to the action fund, here's the just opened (today) Blue America PAC vs Retroactive Immunity page.