Like, wow man.
Is it possible that conservatives are rational human beings with whom one can have a reasonable disagreement? Well, with a sample size of Ann Coulter one might think not. But something … strange … is going on in the Capitol Building.
First of all, there’s this spending bill the House is using to “overturn the FCC’s "Let’s Play Monopoly" media rules”:http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/24/business/media/24FCC.html?hp. Bush has been threatening to veto any bill that monkeys with the new media rules. But *400* — not 300, not 200, not “just all Democrats” — voted to include the measure in the bill anyway. That’s both sides of the aisle realizing media consolodation is pontentially bad for either party depending on which way the wind blows.
Then, there was “this congressional action against the PATRIOT act”:http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A31538-2003Jul22.html. Sneek & Peek searches? No more. Too many people on the right and the left see the potential for abuse in that one regardless of what party the President happens to belong to at the moment.
Republicans are standing up for *my* rights. Amazing.
The Neocon Philosopher-Kings may think the tide will never turn, but it appears the Congressmen — who on occasion have to answer to their electorate — are beginning to realize that a lot of this legislation cuts both ways. In other words: PATRIOT can disappear an awful lot of NRA members, Dittoheads, and Promisekeepers just as easily as it disapeears Greens, Sierra Clubbers, and liberal bloggers. You monkey with civil rights and due process at your own peril.
Maybe the long run of Republican Rubber-stamping of extremist Constitutional Revisionism is coming to a close. I feel a lot better about my leadership in Washington today, whether Republican or Democrat.
