Remember all the cheering and high-fives among Congressional leaders on TV last November celebrating the return to a Democratic controlled Congress?
It has become a frustrating disappointment! 

While "control" might be a tenuous reality in the Senate, strong leadership by the Democratic majority would be continuously forcing the Republicans' hand and exposing their hypocritical, obstructionist tactics for all Americans to see. Instead, the Democratic leadership tucks tail and let's the Republicans continue their perfidious ways while they laugh at the Dems gullibility.

Now, acting like Republicans, the Democratic Senate "leadership" has genuflected to super rich gazillionaire hedge funds and other private equity firms making those high dollar campaign contributions while lobbying heavily to continue not paying their fair share of taxes. 

The Dem Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid, (assisted by Chuck Schumer--a no brainer guess) assures these freeloaders that "no worries, mates" the Senate won't act on increasing their taxes this year, and probably not next year since that's an election year and would be dicey.  Tough luck for typical working Americans who will have to carry the tax load, but Senate Dems can't afford to alienate these high rollers.

Not to be outdone by the Senate, House Democratic leadership seems willing to cave to the administration on the FISA surveillance issue.  After almost seven years, why are House Dems still so naive about the untrustworthiness of Bush, his appointees, and his administration on practically every issue including this one?  Have their short term memories erased Mike McConnell's recent lies to House and Senate committees? 

There have been continuing adjustments to FISA since its inception more than thirty years ago to reflect advances in technology and surveillance.  FISA worked well for intelligence agencies during the Democratic Carter and Clinton years, but somehow is inadequate for authoritarian Republican administrations like Prince George and King Dick.

Why is the House leadership even considering concessions?  Oh, wait....they're afraid of being called soft on terrorism.  So, FISA, the Constitution, civil liberties be damned...because House Dems are terrified of being called names and don't know how to be pro-active and stay ahead of the curve.  Instead of defeating the machinations of a dangerous unitary executive and his Republican Congressional cohorts, the Dem leadership is enabling these scoundrels.