New York Times: Rushing Off a Cliff

Here’s what happens when this irresponsible Congress railroads a profoundly
important bill to serve the mindless politics of a midterm election: The
Bush administration uses Republicans’ fear of losing their majority to
push through ghastly ideas about antiterrorism that will make American troops
less safe and do lasting damage to our 217-year-old nation of laws — while
actually doing nothing to protect the nation from terrorists. Democrats betray
their principles to avoid last-minute attack ads. Our democracy is the big
loser.

[...]

There is not enough time to fix these
bills, especially since the few Republicans who call themselves moderates have
been whipped into line, and the Democratic leadership in the Senate seems to
have misplaced its spine. If there was ever a moment for a filibuster, this was
it.

We don’t blame the Democrats for being frightened. The Republicans
have made it clear that they’ll use any opportunity to brand anyone who votes
against this bill as a terrorist enabler. But Americans of the future won’t
remember the pragmatic arguments for caving in to the administration.

They’ll know that in 2006, Congress passed a tyrannical law that will be
ranked with the low points in American democracy, our generation’s version of
the Alien and Sedition Acts.

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