Why do Democrats give in to Bush?

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The Kossacks are not happy about Congress giving Bush what he wants on the FISA bill:
The Democrats in the US Senate are systematically getting rolled, once again, by veiled threats of terrorism, closed briefings about "traffic", and the implicit threat that if they don't give George Bush EXACTLY WHAT HE WANTS, they will be targeted in the next election.

Where are the real patriots?

Where are the men and women who value the American Experiment enough to stand for the Constitution, and the Civil Rights of citizens over campaign cash, and Rovian threats, deliverd with no subtlety, no real skill, and no power to effect, if they just stood up on their hind legs and made the case for the Separation of Powers?

Neither is Liz Mair, posting on Daily Dish:

It won't surprise many people to know that I am skeptical of what was passed. While I do feel that Congress needed to do something on the issue of surveillance before heading off on holiday, I had thought the proposal put forward by some Democrats last week sounded better in terms of protecting civil liberties, while still allowing the executive branch to collect valuable intelligence via surveillance. As I understand it, what was passed last night does depart from that proposal quite a bit. The good news? Apparently, a six month sunset provision was built into the bill passed last night. So, at least any trampling of civil liberties won't be going on for years and years-- unless Congress decides to approve legislation like this again in 2008, that is.

UPDATE: Painful though it is for me to cite Kos, here's the Dkos list of the Dems who voted for this:Evan Bayh (Indiana); Tom Carper (Delaware); Bob Casey (Pennsylvania); Kent Conrad (North Dakota); Dianne Feinstein (California); Daniel Inouye (Hawai‘i); Amy Klobuchar (Minnesota); Mary Landrieu (Louisiana); Blanche Lincoln (Arkansas); Claire McCaskill (Missouri); Barbara Mikulski (Maryland); Bill Nelson (Florida); Ben Nelson (Nebraska); Mark Pryor (Arkansas); Ken Salazar (Colorado); Jim Webb (Virginia).

Why would anyone, let alone a Democrat, vote to give Alberto Gonzales of all people, more power? So much work to be done...

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