I was appalled. There they were: The names of Sen. Amy Kloboucher, D-Minn., and Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., among the 16 Democratic U. S. senators voting with the Republicans to fork over unconstitutional powers to President Bush. What were they thinking? Why would they want to give even more power to a power-snatching egotist?
I am referring to their votes on Senate Bill 1927, a bill that the New York Times describes as an "unnecessary and dangerous expansion of President Bush's powers ... to spy on Americans in violation of basic constitutional rights."
The bill gives new authority for warrantless eavesdropping that would further abridge constitutional protections against government overreaching - the very type of improper overreaching that is typical of this catastrophic administration.
Were Kloboucher and Conrad so intimidated by Republican scare tactics that they forgot about their duty to protect and support the Constitution? Well, along with some of the other Democrats who voted with the Republicans, they will probably claim they were were acting in the name of national security. Perhaps so. Or is it more likely they were really thinking in terms of job security?
