Hall of Shame

Careful with The Law, you Mexican dishwasher, you. We can’t be having ILLEGAL ALIENS make a mockery of our statutes. That’s for the U.S. Senate to do. The upper chamber signaled once again its ignominious collapse in the face of the Bush regime Wednesday by voting 57 to 31 to give retroactive immunity to the telecom companies who’ve been spying on us in blatant disregard of our laws. Their excuse? George W told them to, or ‘I was just following orders, sir!’

All 49 Republicans voted for this measure, of course. They were joined by 18 Copperhead Democrats. Here they are:

[Clinton supporters]:
Evan Bayh, Indiana
Daniel Inouye, Hawaii
Blanche Lincoln, Arkansas
Bill Nelson, Florida
Debbie Stabenow, Michigan
Dianne Feinstein, California
Mark Pryor, Arkansas
Ken Salazar, Colorado
Barbara Mikulski, Maryland

[Obama supporters]:
Kent Conrad, North Dakota
Tim Johnson, South Dakota
Claire McCaskill, Missouri
Ben Nelson, Nebraska

[Neutral]:
James Webb, Virginia
Thomas Carper, Delaware
Herb Kohl, Wisconsin
Mary Landrieu, Louisiana
Jay Rockefeller, West Virginia

Just in case we needed a reminder why the triumph of the Democrats two years ago mattered so damn little in the long run on things like the war in Iraq, the economy, health care and all the rest of it. And why Hillary Clinton is so richly deserving of being shellacked in the primaries, the Clinton duoply being representatives par excellence of exactly this sort of cowardly obedience to the reactionary tendencies creeping forward around us.

[P.S.] Obama voted against. Clinton was in Washington, according to one website, but didn't vote at all. She resurfaced in El Paso, Texas.