Why the Netroots Shouldn't Defend Obama's FISA Vote

"I am proud to stand with Senator Dodd, Senator Feingold and a grassroots movement of Americans who are refusing to let President Bush put protections for special interests ahead of our security and our liberty. There is no reason why telephone companies should be given blanket immunity to cover violations of the rights of the American people - we must reaffirm that no one in this country is above the law."

Barack Obama, promising on February 12, 2008 not to give immunity to telecommunication companies that paticipated in warrantless wiretapping. Obama voted this month to give telecom companies retroactive immunity from lawsuits. A true profile in courage.

David Sirota wrote about how Obama willingly using the progressive movement to promote his candidacy and ignores the netroots policy concerns.

However, what Obama has also done is taken over key pieces of outside progressive infrastructure and ignored other pieces. Moveon.org, for instance, spends much of its time echoing Obama's message and attacking John McCain rather than using the election as an instrument of leverage to exert pressure on both Obama and McCain on major issues. In other words, Obama has effectively taken over Moveon - or at least its strategic focus. As evidenced by his FISA vote, Obama is also ignoring the Netroots.

I'm not a fan of MoveOn, but Sirota point is something that I have been thinking about for a while. Presidents come and go. The policies they make are matters we have to deal with for generations. Sirota told NPR that progressives using Obama's own website to try to make the Senator change his vote is hope that the Netroots is waking up.

There are progressives willing to ignore Obama's disregard for civil liberties. Kenneth Quinnell talked about how progressives should not call Obama a flip flopper. Quinnell went as far to say that Obama's FISA position has been consistent. Obama's office said the Senator "unequivocally opposes" immunity and "To be clear: Barack will support a filibuster of any bill that includes retroactive immunity for telecommunications companies." Quinnell's podcast is as laughable as Glenn Reynolds' posts about how well Bush has run the Iraq war.

I didn't get into blogging to become an unofficial campaign staffer for Barack Obama. I won't use the excuse that he is better than John McCain. I will freely disagree with Obama or any other candidate.

A Ford Pinto will get a person from point A to B faster than walking. That doesn't mean the Pinto suddenly became a great car. Just because Obama isn't John McCain doesn't mean he didn't flip flop on FISA. Citizens should question candidates positions on policy. Not worship them as if they were royalty.