Matt Stoller, along with Atrios, Sarah, and Jane Hamsher are asking readers to contact Hoyer and Emanuel:
The dynamic in the House is really odd. Hoyer and Emanuel seem to be pushing for a FISA capitulation to ‘protect the freshmen’, even though the freshmen understand their constituents don’t want a FISA capitulation. No one will go on the record on any of this, and Emanuel and Hoyer aren’t voting for the capitulation, only orchestrating its passage.
This is not a surprise, though it is amusing that Pelosi’s promises to ‘fix’ the temporary FISA bill passed in August are as worthless as they appeared at the time.
What’s weird is that no one wants this capitulation except Hoyer and Emanuel. The Bush Dogs are going to vote for it, since that’s what they would do, but they would vote for a better bill. The freshmen don’t feel politically threatened by a better bill, and know that standing up to Bush is popular. It’s like the House is operating on conservative autopilot.
The progressive caucus is unified against the bill (update: well, technically they are unified for ‘principles’ since the text of the bill isn’t out yet). If there’s a way to beat this back, it’s through the freshmen. I hope they start speaking out against it.
Unfortunately they have not enlisted the bloggers with the most influence in such a case, the ones in Maryland and Illinois. Netroots has come a long way, but we are still getting organized.
Edit –
Unqualified Offerings
Not one Democratic Senator appears interested in putting a hold on the latest FISA monstrosity. Not one put a hold on the last one. Not one put a hold on the Military Commissions Act. Clinton could do this. Obama could do this. Dodd could do this. Webb could do this.
Edit ii
Hoyer Postpones FISA Roll-out
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