Webb Sells Us Out. Again.

Back in August, Sen. Jim Webb (D-VA) was one of the votes for expanding the Administration’s surveillance powers without any substantive oversight. And now, today, he voted for providing retroactive immunity for the telecom companies that helped the Administration engage in illegal spying on Americans. This was a basic question of whether you support the rule of law or not, and Webb failed it.

They always disappoint in the end, don’t they?

Other Democrats who value the telecom companies over your Constitutional rights and the rule of law include:

• Jay Rockefeller (D-WV)
• Evan Bayh (D-IA)
• Daniel Inouye (D-HI)
• Tim Johnson (D-SD)
• Herb Kohl (D-WI)
• Mary Landrieu (D-LA)
• Claire McCaskill (D-MO)
• Mark Pryor (D-AR)
• Blanche Lincoln (D-AR)
• Dianne Feinstein (D-CA)
• Ken Salazar (D-CO)
• Tom Carper (D-DE)
• Barbara Mikulski (D-MD)
• Ben Nelson (D-NE)
• Bill Nelson (D-FL)
• Kent Conrad (D-ND)
• Debbie Stabenow (D-MI)

Updated: Atrios says something worth considering:

While one can’t discount legalized bribery campaign dollars entirely, I do think too often we assume they’re the reason lawmakers do the “wrong thing” when the simpler explanation that they believe the wrong thing is in fact the right thing is the answer.

Too many Democrats simply don’t have the values we imagine they do, and it lets them off the hook too much to assume they’re simply craven people who need to get re-elected instead of bad people who don’t share our values.

I wouldn’t go so far as to characterize them as “bad people”, but I think this generally gets it right. I’m not interested in a monoculture party with perfectly harmonized values, but I do expect a shared core. One that includes the rule of law and respect for the Constitution.