Comments on: Democrats’ spines turn to jelly on warrantless spying once again–but there’s still hope

By: Spychief Plan To Police Internet Is Likely Tied To S 1959, Thought Crime Prevention Bill

Sun, 20 Jan 2008 15:05:41 +0000

[...] friend to the major telecom companies, having most recently stumped on their behalf to grant them retroactive immunity from prosecution in the NSAâ€™s illegal surveillance program. Heâ€™s also a big fan of privatizing national security [...]

By: Scholars and Rogues » All your Internets are belong to ATT & the NSA

Scholars and Rogues » All your Internets are belong to ATT & the NSA — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 14:20:45 +0000

[...] friend to the major telecom companies, having most recently stumped on their behalf to grant them retroactive immunity from prosecution in the NSA’s illegal surveillance program. He’s also a big fan of privatizing national [...]

By: Scholars and Rogues » Senate to telecoms: You aren’t immune–yet

Scholars and Rogues » Senate to telecoms: You aren’t immune–yet — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 13:22:54 +0000

[...] data mining, apparently was angry that the Senate Intelligence Committee chaired by Jay Rockefeller sold out to Bush’s demands for immunity and an essential blank check for warrantless spying. Dodd, in turn, was angry that Senate Majority [...]

By: Dodd threatens filibuster of FISA bill « Scholars and Rogues

Dodd threatens filibuster of FISA bill « Scholars and Rogues — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 18:58:25 +0000

[...] Loralei” pointed out in comments to my post yesterday that Senate Majority Leader Reid was planning to move ahead with a vote on the FISA update, even in the face of Dodd’s hold on the bill. Sure enough, that seems to [...]

By: Dee Loralei

Dee Loralei — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 02:45:15 +0000

Of all the sitting Senators running for Pres., Dodd has been more out in front on many of the progressive issues. I’m so glad he is doing this on the FISA bill. It’s a real action. But is it leadership? Has he convinced other Senators to take stands with him? Since I won’t get my Gore run, I’m still “flirting” with the other candidates. I read I think at TPM, that Harry Reid was going to do an end run around Dodd and have the bill Rockefeller negotiated put up for a vote next month. It should remain unsaid that Rockefeller and Reid both get monies from Telecoms. If Dodd can get a few more Senators to stand with him, I don’t see how Harry can bring it up. But Chris has got to put pressure on Clinton and Obama on the campaign trail. I think he’s got Leahy and he can prolly get Whitehouse. I imagine there are a few more Constitution loving liberals in the Senate. So let this be a test of his leadership ability. But good on him for putting the hold on it.

By: Dr. Denny

Dr. Denny — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 21:54:42 +0000

Ditto, Martin. I’ll send my two cents to Dodd.

By: Russ Wellen

Russ Wellen — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 20:45:15 +0000

Thanks for enlightening me, Martin. Scholars & Rogues is fortunate to have someone on the staff who’s as well-versed in these matters as you are.

By: Martin

Martin — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 18:53:12 +0000

I agree completely with Sirota–it’s very telling about where the netroots’ priorities lie and who makes up the major players of the netroots that you don’t see armies of bloggers demanding Dodd push his credit card-reform and predatory lending reform bills.

It’s also very much in keeping with Sirota’s M.O.–he’s a populist and a rabblerouser who gets all his support from hating on those evil Washington types. Like Matt Taibbi, he chastises the Dems and their supporters (rightly or wrongly) for not focusing on economic populist issues.

But I’ve seen Dodd step up on these issues personally and seen the legislation he’s pushed–and given that these are issues I fight for, personally, myself, you won’t see me hating on him for it. Let’s hope he takes that same tack with this issue.

By: Russ Wellen

Russ Wellen — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 18:47:23 +0000

Sirota had this to say on Dodd and the Internet:

You may have noticed that the blogosphere has been ablaze about the issue of domestic surveillance. Today, the blogospheric pressure is coming down on Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd (D) to basically use his committee chairmanship to prevent a bill from passing that would retroactively immunize telecom companies from legal prosecution for their complicity in helping the Bush administration unconstitutionally wiretap. The push is good, and valuable and I support it wholeheartedly

But here’s what bothers me. Dodd is the chairman of the Banking Committee – one of the most powerful panels overseeing all the financial and regulatory issues that working-class folks face every single day of their lives. The mortgage foreclosure crisis is just one huge example. And yet, there has been relatively little netroots or blogospheric pressure on Dodd to use his chairmanship for such issues of economic power and class.

Dodd has New England aristocrat politics (not surprising as the son of a senator from one of the wealthiest states in the nation). He has long been thrilled to swim in the ocean of corporate money that envelopes Washington. He has mastered the art of tacking to the left on non-economic-class issues, but staying within the Washington mainstream on the issues of money that really run the nation’s capital (though, I should say, he has become a bit better on these issues since running for president … sometimes opportunism bears fruit).