I’d say that until we here are able to even consider someone else sees a situation differently, let alone with as much passion and consistency to their view, that we have no chance at advancing an agenda, and in fact are just as violently fractious as those whom we believe we oppose.

No wonder the left can’t get the votes to change anything. “Vote with us, you ignorant gasbag” wouldn’t sway me much, either.

Probably a good thing to keep in mind as we call everyone this morning.

What’s up with Arlen is that he actually cares very, very deeply about the Constitution, and more than any other Senator today spent time trying to emphasize what complete insantity/criminal complicity retroactive immunity is. And he was doing this from the Republican side, too! The lines of questioning were Arlen’s attempts (drawing on his prosecutorial background, I thought) to get other Senators to confirm on the record things like Senators can’t give their voting responsibility to others (the line of questioning to Whitehouse, to which Whitehouse replied he felt it wasn’t unconstitutional, but it was deeply imprudent), which was Specter’s way of emphasizing throughout the day that less than 40% of the Senate and less than 20% of the House even knows what behavior they’re immunizing. Another of Arlen’s points, which he brought up at least three or four times, was that it was unprecedented for Congress to end cases that had been in progress for years and were now in front of a judge (in this case Vaughn Walker in SF), especially when a decision had found the government’s behavior unconstitutional – he felt this was a real Constitutional error. Some of the stuff that went back and forth between Specter and Rockefeller was about this point, where Specter boldly spoke that taking the time to decide these cases was the price of Constitutional and civil rights.

Sometimes these guys are just winging it, and they misunderstand each other, and there was also a bit of that between Arlen and Jay. Jay said something about how the debate had not even mentioned the importance of intelligence, and at least to me it sounded as though it was simple human hurt that not enough of the debate had recognized his attempts to secure good intelligence to protect the country (I deeply disagree with his methods, but I really got the emotional impression he wasn’t bullshitting here, he had really been trying to help). Arlen seemed to hear that as Jay forgetting that Arlen had chaired the Intelligence Committee, too, and so he and Jay went at each other a bit, two old men tired and open to the simple weakness of human emotion.

I’ve been no fan of Specter’s, ever, but I have to say that what I saw of him today nearly moved me to tears. You may not have seen it on C-SPAN, but he was in the Senate chamber almost all day – far, far more than any other Senator – his hair gone, his body frail, his walk slow and pained, but unwilling to give up on trying to save the Constitution he believed in. As other Senators would speak he’d be at his desk taking notes, or working with his staff, or sometimes just sitting and thinking. I don’t agree with his decision to vote for the bill if immunity stays in, or even the substitution idea, and went up to his office to tell his staff afterwards, but I almost don’t care. If half the Democrats had the balls that Arlen Specter showed today we’d have not only no FISA bill to worry about, we’d have a different President and VP.

Jesus, I can’t believe Arlen Specter’s going to make me cry. But it was one of the most moving things I’ve ever seen. And I hope if I’m ever that old, or that tired, or that weak, I have even half that much courage.

What I told his staffer was that I really honored what Arlen did today, and that I thought it did justice to the best traditions of the Senate. And my hope for him, just as a human being, was that he be able to open to what his cancer might bring to him as much as he was willing to fight what it might take from him. That he could reach across the aisle of his own internal battle to find a compromise not only with an opponent, but a partner and friend. And in that spirit of compromise and remembrance of friendship, may he love and truly honor the human Senate within himself, and within us all.

Best wishes,
Bruce

Has anyone figured out what was going on there? It seemed like it veered off the script.