Besides
being a distinguished intelligence officer and former admiral, Joe Sestak is the real deal. He’s also right on the issues. I’ve quoted
him many times,
most recently on Iraq, which
everyone should read and digest. But his latest speech for CAP is what the entire
leadership should have been saying, instead of going the way of the recent FISA
cave in.
How could we have not have stood up for rights of civil liberties while ensuring
the proper ability to go and listen, and just stayed during the recess if
necessary. And I understand that our leadership in the caucus has to worry
about how the public will perceive it, but I also know this, that ultimately,
we have to, as Benjamin Franklin said, be concerned that those who give up…liberty
in the name security, deserve neither liberty or security. This is
a time that I strongly believe, we should have stood up and said no. Attorney
General Gonzales, we’re not going to let you decide the guidelines upon
which you’ll listen in on Americans.(snip)
FISA’s not broken except for some minor changes, like as I mentioned,
two individuals out there across the ocean, foreigners, not U.S, listening
to one another, and because of today’s technologies it gets routed through
a server or something here in the United States. We made those changes. We
made the three major changes that he wanted. The issue here is they just don’t
want to come to the FISA court. That’s enough to tell me we need them
to. I spent 31 years of my military career protecting the Constitution. Do
I believe in security? Every moment, I wouldn’t have stayed those 31
years. But what I learned during that period of time is that while we’re
respected for the power of our military, we’re respected for the power
of our economy. We’re admired for the power of our ideals. There’s
the right balance ensuring the protections of those ideals and the protection
of our day to day lifes of our citizens. We struck that with the point man
of the administration. We should have stayed with that and fought hard to
do that because ultimately it is the Constitution we protect and to ensure
the furtherance of the type of society we want while protecting our overall
security.”Rep. Sestak
On FISA: ‘We Should Have Stood Up And Said No’
Senator Reid failed miserably in the Senate, not leading Democrats to unite in this cause.
Speaker Pelosi has already asked that the bill be amended when Congress is back
in September. Every single Democrat should have voted no on this bill, but the leadership should have made that happen. That they didn’t shows just
how much work we’ve left to do. Because progressives know instinctively what’s
been done on Bush’s watch, especially where our rights under the Constitution
are concerned, as well as the image and hope our great nation represents to the world. The old Democratic guard missed it. After all our work they
missed it. It leaves you almost speechless.
All in all, this is an ugly loss of control of House procedure by Hoyer,
Clyburn, Emanuel, and Pelosi, and a poor showing by Harry Reid and many Senate
Democrats. We know that Republicans think of the Constitution as toilet paper,
but it’s frustrating when Democrats don’t use every tool in our arsenal to
defend it.
Then you look at someone like Joe Sestak. A military man who states plainly
what’s required to keep our Constitution in force while honoring the tenets
of this country. We need more leaders like Sestak. We also need the Democrats
who failed us to feel the heat.
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