A Righteous Tongue-Lashing

(Updated below. Twice.)

A few days ago, I alluded to the lame group that we call "Congress." I was too discouraged about their cowardice in giving in to the Bush Administration on surveillance to write anything coherent.

Fortunately, the editorial board at the NYT got the job done. This is an excellent essay: "The Fear of Fear Itself."

Money quote:

… the spectacle left us wondering what the Democrats -- especially their feckless Senate leaders -- plan to do with their majority in Congress if they are too scared of Republican campaign ads to use it to protect the Constitution and restrain an out-of-control president.

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Update

2007-08-07 19:36 EDT

The WaPo has a good one, too.

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Update

2007-08-18 16:28 EDT

For the record …

Here are the 16 Senate Democrats who voted for Bush's surveillance bill (source): Bayh (IN), Carper (DE), Casey (PA), Conrad (ND), Feinstein (CA), Inouye (HI), Klobuchar (MN), Landrieu (LA), Lincoln (AR), McCaskill (MO), Mikulski (MD), Nelson (FL), Nelson (NE), Pryor (AR), Salazar (CO), Webb (VA)

Here are the 6 Senate Democrats who could not be bothered to vote (source): Boxer (CA), Dorgan (ND), Harkin (IA), Johnson (SD), Kerry (MA), Murray (WA)

Here are the 41 House Democrats who voted for Bush's surveillance bill (source): Altmire, Barrow, Bean, Boren, Boswell, Boyd (FL), Carney, Chandler, Cooper, Costa, Cramer, Cuellar, Davis (AL), Davis (Lincoln), Donnelly, Edwards, Ellsworth, Etheridge, Gordon, Herseth Sandlin, Higgins, Hill, Lampson, Lipinski, Marshall, Matheson, McIntyre, Melancon, Mitchell, Peterson (MN), Pomeroy, Rodriguez, Ross, Salazar, Shuler, Snyder, Space, Tanner, Taylor, Walz (MN), Wilson (OH)

Here are the 9 House Democrats who could not be bothered to vote (source): Becerra, Clarke, Clay, Delahunt, Hinojosa, Kilpatrick, Klein (FL), Lantos, Skelton