"Hasn't the Democratic leadership learned anything about their Bushite rubber stamp Republica colleagues during Georgie's imperial seven year reign?

"How many more times do clueless Democratic leaders plan to play Charlie Brown to Lucy pulling the football out from under them?  How many times do they have to be hit in the head?  Chimps are smarter that that."

That's a snippet of what I wrote a few days ago titled, "Some Congressional Leaders Never Learn, " about House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and crew caving yet again to George the Lesser, especially by not including a requirement for a troop withdrawal from Iraq timeline in the appropriations bill. 

Now that Pelosi has bowed and curtsied to her king, she (and her pathetic "leadership" gang) have tried to spin their failure as a victory because they gave the emperor $70 billion for the Iraq occupation and won't accede to his demand for $130 billion more until January.  Big whoop!

Today, the FISA bill regarding telecom amnesty and presidential surveillance will be debated on the Senate floor.  Majority "Leader" Harry Reid (D-NV) is dismayingly disregarding Senator Chris Dodd's (D-CT) "hold" on telecom amnesty legislation even though Reid previously has honored Republican senators' "holds" (even absolutely dishonorable GOP holds) on bills.

Here is what I wrote on 10/24/07 about Reid and Dodd's hold in a post titled, "It's Come to This: Asking a Democratic Leader to Do the Right Thing."
"If you've been to Daily Kos, Firedoglake, Digby and other sites today, you will read an excellent letter signed by these and other bloggers, the ACLU, Free Press, MoveOn and other organizations and sent to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, (D-NV).  It asks him to honor Senator Chris Dodd's hold on FISA legislation that grants Bush's demands for retroactive immunity for telecoms and to stop this terrible anti-constitutional rights and anti-rule of law bill.  Please sign this important letter.

"Having said that, however, it's dismaying that we Democrats must plead with the Senate Democratic Majority Leader to carry out his responsibilities as a senator, a majority leader and, most appalling, as a Democrat to protect constitutional rights, rule of law, and uphold senate tradition invoked by another Democratic member of the chamber.  If Harry Reid were a true Democrat, there would be no need for this letter."

Glenn Greenwald writes about two Senate committees' competing FISA bills, one from the Senate Intelligence Committee chaired by (telecom donor recipient and then ranking member of the committee in 2002 who knew about waterboarding then and kept silent) Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WVA) which, unsurprisingly, includes retroactive telecom immunity.  The other from the Senate Judiciary Committee (chaired by Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) does not contain immunity.  Reid is ignoring the Senate Judiciary Committee's bill and bringing the SIC bill, which meets the president's demands, to the floor as the "base" bill.

Are Reid and Pelosi really Democrats?  Reid, who is blatantly screwing the American public and disregarding the Constitution, is not. Pelosi may be a Democrat but not a solid Democrat and she is weak and ineffective.

It's time for the Democratic grassroots to begin identifying, promoting, and supporting real Democrats to challenge the current spineless Senate and House leaders (including Rahm Emanuel (D-IL) and Steny Hoyer (D-MD) in primaries in their states or districts when they are up for re-election.

Current Democratic Party honchos on Capitol Hill are acting like Republican lackeys not Democratic leaders.  As I wrote in that prior posting, "For these Democratic Congressional leaders, more than a decade as a minority in a Repuglica controlled Congress seems to have addled their brains and removed their spines. The Repugs, now the minority, are apparently still calling the shots, and the Dem leaders keep begging "pretty please" while they enable Bush and his Republica Capitol Hill lackeys to continue damaging this country and pissing on the Constitution."